So, if any of you don’t know, we got hit pretty hard by van repairs gearing up for touring – so we’re taking back to the streets, trying to busk our assess of to make up the difference. We were playing A Pair of Brown Eyes out by Park Street, and an gentleman in his 50s started singing along. After we finished, he said that we were wonderful, and that he had actually spent a good deal of time with Shane MacGowan, and that the Wolf Tones were his cousins. This gentleman, named Walter, through a $20 in the case and wished us well – to which I say, thank you sir, you’re helping us pay for our shirt designs and put out our 3rd album – we really fucking appreciate it. And per request, I will never call you a sir so long as my liquor addled brain can remember it.

Actually it was really great – Ryan and I got to run through a bunch of the old songs – our pub set songs, things we almost NEVER get the chance to play anymore, as well as songs from the first two albums. We did just about everything save This Road and Bound for Glory (the latter I’m hoping we can go over and re-add to the set). It’s funny, you hit a point where songs are almost like old friends, and you really start to miss some of them after a while. We joked about sending Erik Petersen a fully electric version of Love and Rage, not to mention how many other songs we promptly and delightfully mutilated throughout the night. I felt like Sweeny Todd – TRY THE PRIEST!

At one point, there was a drunk group of Italians who proceded to turn Park Street into a flat out dance party, not to mention this sweetheart of a girl named Meridan who came up to us during our break. Also, the guy who just plain rocked the fuck out during Drunk Before Noon was wonderful. Really, it’s all about the people you meet along the way. I got to slut out our Oct 1st show to so many people – I really hope it ends up being the fucking fantastic party that I see it in my head as.

Now I’m here, drinking Narragansett’s Fest trying to capture wat was a downright wonderful night; I hope all of your nights were as fantastic as ours – I’ve got to wake up early and start tracking guitar parts.

Or the alternative title: Smashed Glass Vacuum Tubes, Missing Wheels, Black Eyes, and a hell of a time.

So where the hell should I begin? It’s been a HELL of a weekend, only to hit the ground running with booking when I awoke this morning. (Which really, is quite wonderful – it’s all coming together!)

First and foremost: Fuck Verizon’s GPS for not allowing us to enter in the address for Cherry Street Station properly. Bitches, all of them

Anyways, after much cursing, we arrive at Cherry Street Station for an epic show with The Alehounds, Sadplant, and The McGunks. This might be one of the best goddamn lineups we’ve played with down at Cherry St – it was a full on bill of absolute awesome. Also, the ever lovely Sarah reprised her roll as the Powers Irish Whiskey Queen – Dangerous as she is inviting – just how we love our ladies. Alehounds, Sadplant, and the McGunks were fucking incredible. I’m not going to play favorites, because it would be a waste of time. Every band just ripped it right the fuck up.

Regardless, Powers was in full effect courtesy of Dennis and Sarah, so we had a straight up whiskey drunk by the time we took stage. This means that we played everything stupid fast and what a fucking good time that was. Thanks to the two girls to my right who kept pouring pitchers of beer down my throat, I almost booted by the second to last song – spent most of it dry heaving. Finally after a good BELTCH, I got my shit back together and we tore into one of our favorite closers, “You Won’t Take Me Alive”. Fuck yeah! You guys were all awesome.

From there, we ended up at Sarah’s apartment. Where of course she has a bar setup in her living room, complete with 2 liters of Powers, a 30 rack of PBR, and then Dennis showed up with beer, as did Kacie with a case of Guinness. Also, there was this AWESOME little dog by the name of Zooey – Half Jack Russell, half Chihuahua – all intrepid. She became both my hero and found herself a nice nook at the foot of the couch I commandeered. Seeing as how my day started at 2:30am, I was out by about 3:30am, while the night carried forth until at least 7am, I’ve been told. I’ll let Chestnut fill in the details… if he can remember them.

Morning found us with an awake an maniacal Ethan simply uttering one word on repetition, as a delicious mantra: “Pancakes”. So naturally, we gravitate towards the nearest diner, this great place right by both Sarah’s and Cherry Street – Couldn’t remember the name to save my life. But it was delicious, and we were obnoxious, but the waitress made sure the coffee and food was plentiful

We parted ways with Sarah, and made for NYC – uneventful ride outside of normal NYC bullshit (read: traffic) and we even found parking near Trash Bar. Though, fuck the security guards who bitched at me for changing my strings on the sidewalk for being a nuisance while the woman screaming at the top of her lungs talking about getting her crew up in some other broads face was ‘politely ignored’, but man, fuck those musicians – They’re scumbags. ANYWAYS. Killing time and looking for a place to piss, we find the near by Midway Lounge (sister bar to our beloved midway cafe?) and partake in happy hour pints. The bartender looks at me for a second and goes “hey, wait, weren’t you guys here last month? I remember a bearded band from Boston!”. She was of course, referring to my blackout adventure post Jeff Rowe’s Trash Bar debut with the Old Edison. THE LEGEND GROWS!

Anyways, more on that night, and the next day, when I get the chance. Off to work, and then we set up for recording tonight – Drums and Bass the Next Two Days.

And surprisingly, there was no arguing involved! Just a case of ‘uhhh, how about this? Word.’

The Booze Will Flow
Before The Morning Comes
The Legendary Fred Simard
Six Strings and Gasoline
All I Want
Other Side
Tear it Down
Contents Explosive
Reckless
Carry Me Away
Outlaw Waltz

Sunday night, exhausted, but totally and completely worth it. We spent most of the weekend rehearsing the news song in their entirety and I just have to say they sound fucking awesome – we’ve been working really hard to go over our material, then strip it down, polish it, make it better. Insert, wash, repeat until they shine and goddamn do they ever. I’m really fortune to play with such inventive, thoughtful, hardworking, creative musicians.

Anyone who knows me knows that I never shut the fuck up, but really tonight I’m a man of few words. This shit rocks, and I hope you’re all ready for the record release.

Also, much love to Old Edison for a hell of a set the other night at Southie Tom English’s, and the Candy Apple Red crew for putting on one hell of a show at the Midway on Saturday

Now I’m going to eat some of this lovely poutine, and pass the hell out – Monday is coming faster than I’d like.

-Swagger

In no particular order (read: we’ll get drunk and argue for 4 hours before we have a ordered track list, though admittedly, I kind of like this one):

Other Side
Six Strings and Gasoline
Carry Me Away
Outlaw Waltz
All I Want
Tear it Down
Before The Morning Comes
The Booze Will Flow
Explosive Contents
The Legendary Fred Simard
Reckless

Here I sit on my mother’s fancy new deck on my first day moving things back home before we hit the road. (Till the wheels fall off, till the wheels fall off) drinking a tasty ass rum and coke and surrounding myself with citronella candles as to not be eaten alive by the hordes and hordes of insects that reside in rural MA. I’ve completely forgotten how buggy it gets out here.

I’m stupid excited for the new merch coming down the pipe line. (mostly because I’m going to be on a shirt. [Don't ever put the accordion player in charge of farming out new merch designs.. Ever.] )

Excuse me while I find the bug spray.

So, we played Hutch’s birthday… with guitars on Friday night as the super secret guest, and had an absolute blast. It was a glorious mess really, and much thanks to all the fine people who helped us move gear in the rain. This of course turned into an after hours Birthday party at the Furiousity house, where our practice space resides (aka the Hit Factory – someone in a fit of drunken jackassery wrote this on the door) and us being Growlers, after all, meant that the party ran well to 7am. We were up by 11am, and back the space for noon to find Chestnut passed out behind a wall of PA speakers on a couch in the basement. After waking the bear (we used a poking stick and a trashcan lid), got ice for the beer in the cooler, and proceeded to set in on our first focused writing session for the new album. We started off by going over the songs we’ve already worked out during our regular weekday practices, and then set in on this fantastic Swingin’ number called ‘The Other Side’. By the end of the session, it made me want to dance around like all those early rock and roll madmen – we definitely were on to something good with this one.

Then, out of nowhere, we busted out into the old American standby, House of the Rising Sun – starting Animals-esque for the intro and then smashing into what can best be described as a soulful wall of overdriven sin. It was fucking marvelous. I don’t know if we’ll record it anytime soon but goddamn I hope we play it, at least a few times.

After about 6 hours of this, we decide to break for the day, and I meet a friend of mine, Leah, who was visiting from Maine; This of course involved Ryan, Leah, and Myself sitting there, drinking in the driveway until we found enough motivation in those empty cans to actually pick up a very large jug of Carlo Rossi Paisano, meet up with Chestnut (then later, Liam and Steph) and hang out in the van for the next, oh, 4 hours in our own driveway because apparently we don’t have a house stereo in the apartment anymore. at about 2am, we decided to call it a night before we pass out and possibly spill our drinks.

If you haven’t figured out by now (and as Leslie Inferno so re-affirms here and  here) – Our van hosts some of the best goddamn parties.

Back up at 8am, hitting the ground running, back to the space. Word to the wise people, the Burger King in Allston needs to learn what FAST food is supposed to mean. For fuck’s sake. Anyways, we’re back at the space by 10:45ish and hit the ground running. We positively RIPPED through the warmup songs, All I Want, Booze Will Flow, and Six Strings & Gasoline, and then focused our sonic assault on the next new song, Kingdom of Fear – a blisteringly thrashy number inspired by the Hunter S. Thompson book of the same name.  Ethan started doing some goddamn insane things on that violin. Mortals should fear his goddamn violin – his playing is not for the feint of heart or frail of constitution. He was doing things I’ve never even seen people CONSIDER on that instrument, with incredible results.

Also, surprisingly enough, cheap wine at 11am is still pretty good. Just Saying.

On that note, I’m going to pass the fuck out and get ready to hit the ground running for the never ending job that is booking a tour DIY.

-Swagger

So, I finally got off my ass and added social media sharing aspects to our website: Google’s +1 and Facebook’s like. You may now proceed to +1 and like the living hell out of our website now. Especially our merch section.