Back from tour

Back home and getting ready to pick my 2 boys from Holland up from the airport. They're coming to hang out for a week and enjoy M'towns scenery which right now is all snow and ice.

Hit up the bookstore last monday and this is what I got:
The Bostonians - Henry James
Portrait of a Lady - Henry Hames
Washington Square and Daisy Miller - Henry James
Cousin Bette - Honore de Balzac
The Heptameron - Marguerita de Navarre
The Dubliners and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce
The Complete Works - Alexander Pope
Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf

and yesterday at the antique's store I found Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman, it's been a good week. Also, check out my rocking chair, I'm such a grandpa.



here's me and the geeks caught with our pants on our ankles:

Day 2 of tour

Kansas City and St. Louis were both awesome, thanx to everybody that came out.
The weather has changed dramatically overnight and it's nice out again.

This morning in Kansas City I saw this van sitting on the parking lot across from the house where we stayed so I decided to linger and see if Brit Brit or Tomkat were around but no such luck.

Chicago tomorrow, I'm excited to see some people I haven't seen in a while again. I'm talking The Geeks (this South Korean band that's on this tour) into playing Sham 69's 'if the kids are united'.

Leaving for tour

Leaving for tour tomorrow morning, pretty stoked. We also just got our tourdates for march so I'll post those on here as well.
Bringing with me besides the obvious:
- Pere Goriot by Honore the Balzac, almost done with this one and I wanna urge you to get into this writer
- A Keith Richards biografy this weird bird from Holland sent me, I'm stoked to read this, it looks promising
- Werewolves In Their Youth by Michael Chabon, I've never heard of this guy but people seem pretty stoked about him
- The Golden Bowl by Henry James, he's my favourite writes but can at times be pretty hard to get through
- A beard clipper that I just bought, I will be a non stop scruffy extravaganza from now on
- 7 cans of pringles barbeque flavour
- pictures of everybody I think about while away from home even though I have no clue where home exactly is
- my moleskine, get into it, they're huge for a reason

packing always takes me a long as time even though I like to travel light. I spend a lot of time deciding what not to bring so here's my playlist while packing, I wish all of you would listen to this even though some of these gems are a bit older. everybody who's complaining about a lack of exciting music going on should shut the hell up and that includes the guy from apparat himself. and yes, the new JT has some really innovating moments but I had to stop listening after the 'hi my name is bob and I work at my job' song which ruins that entire record. If I'm rambling it's because Kate at Corner's hooked us up with free going away drinks.
- trentemoller - the last resort
- digital mystiks - digital mystikz
- mum - summer makes good
- nathan fake - the sky is pink & drowning in a sea of love
- apparat - multifunktionsgebene
- lazy fat people - big city

Before I forget, I saw Will Whitmore yesterday and I got a gift for a special person. special. Also I just met Chef D'Micael who's the chef (as his name suggests) at the Tremont. True.

In other news, I just started a collaboration with my buddy Thorir from Reykjavik, Iceland who's doing My Summer In The Salvation Army, Gavin Portland and Fighting Shit amongst many many other things which I am wicked wicked excited about (the music he makes as well as this collab). It looks like me and him will be doing some really interesting stuff musically which I can't wait to share with the world, I will keep you posted. If it doesn't work out this was the last you'll hear off it and bootleg mp3's will go down in internet history.

I love music, it's my girlfriend. Here's tourdates, come say hi because I am playing the best guitar I ever have right now and MLIW is an unstopable rockmachine. While you're at it, say hi to Tim too and make him feel welcome (ladies...). for anybody who can't be at one of these show: I'll think about posting about them but don't count on it. I might post pics if somehow they find their way to me. I'm rambling again, thanx Kate. (ps: metal hammer thinks I'm an interesting fact, top of the world!):

Upcoming shows:

2/18/07 US , Kansas City, MO @ The Anchor
w/ The Geeks, Ambitions tickets: 10 $ advance/ 10 $ door

2/19/07 US , St. Louis, MO @ Lemp Arts Center
w/ The Geeks, Ambitions tickets: 7 $ advance/ 7 $ door

2/20/07 US , Chicago, IL @ Beat Kitchen
w/ The Geeks, Ambitions tickets: 10 $ advance/ 10 $ door

2/21/07 US , Indianapolis, IN @ The Underground
w/ The Geeks, Ambitions tickets: 10 $ advance/ 10 $ door

2/22/07 US , Dayton, OH @ The Water Front
w/ The Geeks, Ambitions tickets: 10 $ advance/ 10 $ door

2/23/07 US , Mt. Clemens, MI @ Hayloft Liquor Stand
w/ Bane, The Geeks, Ambitions tickets: 12 $ advance/ 12 $ door

2/24/07 US , Beloit, WI @ Beloit University
w/ tullycraft, decibully, nakatomi plaza, and dead town revival tickets: $ FREEadvance/ $ FREEdoor Open to Non-students.

3/17/07 Cedar Falls, IA @ The Reverb: St. Patrick’s Day Bash w/ Beat Strings, Brooks Strause, Torpedo Darlings and Checkmate. Doors: 7:00 Show: 10:00

3/24/07 TBD , Omaha, NE @ Christ Community Church Student Center
w/ TBD tickets: TBD $ advance/ TBD $ door

3/27/07 TBD , Milwaukee,WI @ Shorewood Legion Hall
w/ TBD tickets: 10 $ advance/ 10 $ door

3/28/07 TBD , Evansville, IN @ Club 1123
w/ TBD tickets: 7 $ advance/ 7 $ door

3/29/07 TBD , Pittsburgh, PA @ Roboto Project
w/ TBD tickets: 10 $ advance/ 10 $ door

3/30/07 TBD , Rochester, NY @ AV Space
w/ Achilles, Borrowed Time tickets: 10 $ advance/ 10 $ door

3/31/07 TBD , Brooklyn, NY @ 538 Johnson Ave
w/ Mother Night, Paper Dragons tickets: 5 $ advance/ 5 $ door

4/1/07 TBD , Baltimore, MD @ Charm City Art Space
w/ Ruiner, Fighting Dogs, I Adapt, Pulling Teeth tickets: 10 $ advance/ 10 $ door

More on the signing to EVR

taken from Equal Vision Website

MODERN LIFE IS WAR signs with Equal Vision Records
Friday, February 9th, 2007 | 1:15PM

We are proud to announce that Iowa-based melodic hardcore/punk band, Modern Life Is War have signed with Equal Vision Records.

"We chose to sign with Equal Vision for a couple reasons," explains vocalist Jeffrey Eaton. "Number One, because they can give us the support we need to keep touring year round. And number two, because the label is driven by music and not trends, images and marketing schemes like so many other prominent record labels."

Modern Life Is War are currently at home writing the follow-up to their 2005 album Witness, but will be taking a break in February to preview some new songs on the road with Ambitions and The Geeks. Following the tour, Modern Life Is War has studio time booked with legendary indie/punk producer J. Robbins (Against Me!, Texas Is The Reason, Jets To Brazil) to lay down tracks for the upcoming album, which will also be available on vinyl through Lifeline Records.

Modern Life Is War

First and foremost we are proud to announce that we have signed to Equal Vision Records. We will be recording our third album during the month of April at the Magpie Cage in Baltimore with J. Robbins. It will be out in late summer or early fall of this year. We will continue working with Lifeline Records and they will be releasing the vinyl LP version of our new album on the same day. The layout will feature artwork by an Iowa man of mystery who goes by the name Qojak. We will keep you updated on the details as they come.

Thanks to Deathwish Inc. for working with us for the last couple years on our most recent album “Witness” and the re-release of our first album “My Love. My Way.”

As some of you have heard our bass player Chris Honeck decided to leave the band for personal reasons at the end of 2006. Our friend Tim Churchman (Spanish Bombs) has joined the band and will be taking over the bass guitar duties from here on out. Our split with Chris was amicable and we would like to wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors and thank him for years of loyalty, friendship, good times and hard work.

We will be spending the majority of February and March writing songs and preparing to go into the studio. Here are our upcoming tour dates…more to be added soon…



2/18/07 US , Kansas City, MO @ The Anchor
w/ The Geeks, Ambitions tickets: 10 $ advance/ 10 $ door

2/19/07 US , St. Louis, MO @ Lemp Arts Center
w/ The Geeks, Ambitions tickets: 7 $ advance/ 7 $ door

2/20/07 US , Chicago, IL @ Beat Kitchen
w/ The Geeks, Ambitions tickets: 10 $ advance/ 10 $ door

2/21/07 US , Indianapolis, IN @ The Underground
w/ The Geeks, Ambitions tickets: 10 $ advance/ 10 $ door

2/22/07 US , Dayton, OH @ The Water Front
w/ The Geeks, Ambitions tickets: 10 $ advance/ 10 $ door

2/23/07 US , Mt. Clemens, MI @ Hayloft Liquor Stand
w/ Bane, The Geeks, Ambitions tickets: 12 $ advance/ 12 $ door

2/24/07 US , Beloit, WI @ Beloit University
w/ tickets: $ advance/ $ door


Equal Vision

Lifeline

www.deathwishinc.comDeathwish Inc

Merchandise at Merchnow

Merchandise at Crime Scene Merch

A new level of cold

Tonight temperatures will drop to -13 degrees Fahrenheit, which is -25 degrees Celcius. I don't think I've ever been to a place as cold as this. Even Eastern Europe seems warmer.

We've been practicing every day for the past couple weeks and things are going well. We're probably playing a lot of new songs on the upcoming tour in February with Ambitions and The Geeks, check out the
MLIW website for dates.

I am still looking for a Rotterdam Terror Corps jacket so whoever left me a comment saying he/she has one, please get in touch again.

Besides practicing I get a lot of reading time in which is nice. Books I read over the past weeks or still reading right now:
-Pere Goriot by Honore de Balzac
-Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
-Lady Of The Lake by Walter Scott
-Swann's Way by Proust
-The Fables by La Fontaine
-A Math Compendium which I downloaded of some University's website
-The Ambassador's by Henry James
-The Golden Bowl by Henry James
-The Thing's They Carries by Tim O'brien

all come highly recommended except for the math compendium which is kinda boring and in Dutch.

Lotsa music too! while I'm at it here's a list of that:
The Southern Harmony And Musical Companion by The Black Crowes
The Greatest Hits by The Doors
Born To Run by Bruce Springsteen
Lingin In A Magazine by Zoot Woman
Astral Weeks by Van Morrison
Drunk At The YOT Reunion by Slumlords
Yield by Pearl Jam
My Dogan by Kettel
Coming From The Shower After A Late Night With A Failed Date by Joris Voorn
The Idiots Are Winning by James Holden
Drokrockcorkrod by The Ergs!
Band Of Gypsies by Jimmi Hendrix
Hardstyle Is My Style by DJ Pavol
Anniemal by Annie