Archive for August, 2012

Deep Pockets on To-er with So Adult pt.2

Sunday, August 19th, 2012

So we’re still in Seattle at Gasworks here. A bunch more photos because it was just so incredibly beautiful there.

There’s the space needle with Matt onlooking.

We were just talking for a while about who knows what, either way Bo was obviously a great dude and on the same level as us so it was  a sign that the next couple weeks with these guys we don’t know were gonna be good ones.

I was starting to feel a bit of the lag at this point, especially baking under the late afternoon sun. I kind of wanted to crash, but Conor had other ideas.

He decided to roll his ass down the hill. I mean of all the hills to do it on that was definitely a good pick. They were really rolly hills.

Slightly dizzy, Matt helped him to his feet.

What are you grinning at, ghost?

Here is one of the few that usually happen where my camera turns on me. Funny note about this photo – notice I am wearing shorts and a hooded sweatshirt. As a New Yorker I rarely put pants on from the month of June to September so it just made sense to me to pack the same stuff for the west coast. I didn’t really put too much though into it but after a while I realized that we are a lot further north in Seattle and Bellingham than we were in NYC. Definitely wore that hooded zip up quite a bit in the first few days.

The color is really fucked on this one unfortunately but I’m too impatient to fix it. Anyway, after we hung at the Gasworks and the Jolly Green Giants finished up their set we headed over to get some grub at a Thai spot. West coast Thai food was being really hyped up so I was pretty stoked to get some. It was aiight. I am very loyal to my Yajai though.

We still had some time to kill so we went to the space that Shook Ones and So Adult record at to kill some time because it’s fairly close to SeaTac. I guess they had some baseball seats so Matt wanted to sit in them. The lighting was super dim so I made him sit still. Thats why it he looks crazy and out of focus.

Here’s Justin loading his stuff up and getting on the bus, a spike lee joint. We then made the hour and a half ride back to Bellingham for the 11th time. We got back to Bo’s and crashed pretty hard.

The next morning we woke up to a beautiful day in Bellingham. This is Bo and Cecelia’s kitty. Really cute rolling around in the grass.

Cecelia and Bo work at a local farm and one day a week (or a lot more than one I guess) Cecelia sets up a stand at the local farmer’s market. Bo asked us if we’d like to join him for a bit in helping Cecelia to set up. I’ve never seen such a delicious looking set up.

We ended up doing a lot of berry work – packing blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries.  The farm also does orders for local businesses.

The best part of this was when a chef or restaurant owner dude walked over and asked “do your raspberries still taste like little buckets of jam?”

Wait, no actually the best part was when Justin jumped in and started acting like he’s worked for the farm since it opened in ’74. He was bippin and boppin, spreading the word and trying his damndest to sell everything to passersby.

“Yeah they’ve been organic since they opened in 1974 and never converted at any point. Would you like to try a berry?”

This puppy was cute, it didn’t work at that stand but it just took refuge in that shade. We literally stuffed ourselves full of berries and edible flowers, carrots and various other delicious things and headed back to Bo’s. I can’t remember which day we did it, but Bo, Conor and I went to this insane lake at some point. I didn’t bring my camera cause I didn’t want to get it wet but it was insane. If you know me well then you know my feelings about still water so I wasn’t too psyched to jump in at first. At least there wasn’t any seaweed type stuff where we jumped but the water was freeeezing! Really refreshing either way and quite a site with the mountains as the back drop.

Later we went the So Adult practice space under the bowling alley. This was also our introduction to the world of Joe Olmstead. We walked down to hear Joe jamming by himself cranked up to 11 like the rock and roll hero he is. The So Adult fellas gave us some time to test out the gear we’d be sharing with them. They are loud as fuuuck. I can’t stress how awesome those guys are for hooking everything up.

Justin looks nutballs in this one but it’s funny.

After our little jam sesh we all met up behind the bowling alley to load the van. This was the official introduction of everyone in each band to one another.

Pretty much right off the bat I could tell we were all going to get along because they were all cracking jokes and making all the right references.

I even spread the Turncoat philosophy of “king mosh” to them and they took right to it.

Here’s Conor again.

The poster that Conor was on also had a funny little detail – an ex-Weed Hounds thing. Definitely very true, but still really funny to me.

We got to the venue for the kick off and the first thing I noticed was this awesome building. It had what seemed like a date, 1892, on the front but I’m not certain if it wasn’t an address. Either way it looked really fucking rad.

So here is the beginning of the sad. As you see on this Deep Pockets spread we have two t-shirts and a bunch of tapes. Joe and I got to know each other a bit earlier than this shot was taken over about 50 folds and a rota-trimmer. We made two versions of the Deep Pockets / So Adult split tape. We also had our last copies of our demo tape. We’d soon somehow lose the box that held both of these things. A beginning to the string of wacky luck we’d end up having.

I think we played pretty well that night because we were very amped up to play. I was even more amped up to actually see So Adult for the first time. They did not disappoint at all. Everything about their live set was awesome. Their tones, their presence, their tightness.

I loved these guys right off the bat and was really fucking stoked to get to see them night after night.

Also I was blown away by Bob-o’s magical fingers. The end of the night we loaded back up and headed out in a few vehicles to a sort of Russian perogi place. By the time most of us were there and starting to get to know each other we found out the next bit of fun luck popped up. The boys riding in the van were first pulled over by the police for not having their headlights on, then the van wouldn’t start up. Turns out the alternator died out. Bo and Conor, along with maybe Joe and some others ended up staying with the van for a lot of the night while the rest of us headed back to bed. I think Conor felt comfortable because Hank got to show his face for the first time.

The next day we had some time to kill before our show in Seattle. We found out the van wouldn’t be ready for it so we had to take two cars. Bo and Conor stayed back with the van to unload the gear. Cecelia took the rest of us to experience some really beautiful shit that Bellingham to offer.

I have more to scan but from what I remember it was pretty much like walking into the house of Elrond. More stuff to come.

 

Deep Pockets on To-er with So Adult pt.1

Thursday, August 16th, 2012

These guys – these are the guys. Just this past weekend I returned from a two week stint with some of the greatest fellows a fellow could ask to be crammed into a van with. Left to right, top to bottom you have myself, Matt, Bobby, Derek, Joe, then Justin, Bo, and Conor. Before I left I already appreciated the dudes in Deep Pockets for being my favorite group of guys to work with as far as personality mash ups go. Now that I’ve met So Adult I’ve met our west coast alternate universe counter part.

Straight off the bat the trip started with Conor, Matt, and I meeting up in Jamaica to take the air train to JFK and hop on a plane to Seattle. The funny thing is the second we agreed to do this Justin wrote us an email that said like “well I got my tickets guys!” And the rest of us sort us just said “ooh, um ok. Cool Jwow, we’ll just get our tickets at some point too then.” Even though he was an eager beaver I think it related to work somehow but it was funny regardless.

We were greeted by Bo at SeaTac and headed back to his place with his girlfriend Cecelia and Derek. We had an hour and a half back up to Bellingham to get to know each other. We crashed after some more jittery excited discussion. The next morning we went for a walk around downtown B-Ham. Check out the old Karate church around the corner from Bo’s.

Hey look, a real life Bob’s Burgers!

Once we got to Everyday Music we spotted the poster for our first show, the tour kick off, in town. Conor was honored with having his face not only on the show poster, but also two of So Adult’s t-shirts. More on that later.

Everyday Music was pretty sick. I copped a og version of …And Justice For All and Exile on Main St at a discounted rate. My bust though for stepping out to catch a bite because the dudes who worked there were buddies of Bo’s and let Conor browse the more rare crates that were behind the counter. Oh well.

We headed over to the bowling alley Bo worked at so he could get some practice in. The very same theatre that was the backdrop of the S.A. “Citizen’s Arrest” video. Bo’s a league bowler so he had to get some practice in. Me, Matt and Conor bowled a few rounds too. All of varying luck and skill.

Usually I’m not the best but once I remember to slow down my aim I do a lot better. I did end up nailin a straight edge strike which was cool.

The set up the Soda Lutzes have there at that bowling alley is fuckin rad. They have a sweet job that seems to keep them pretty happy, then they are able to rent out the basement as a rehearsal space.

Conor and I got into the inevitable conversation comparing the two lifestyles of the west vs the east after a while. I love the demeanor out there but NY always wins.

I think I’m just too impatient to live in a slower paced place.

Then again when you step outside and feel the cool, breezy air its pretty intoxicating (even if Matt mucks it up with cancer)

Walking back toward Bo’s (and past Cecelia’s job) we noticed a ‘welcome to Bellingham’ piece up on a building and grab a shot of Conor out front.

I guess this is a weird self portrait?

So after a while we had to make the one and a half drive out to Seattle to pick up the split tapes up from the Most Gross label. Joe was designing a cover as the days went by. Most Gross are just down the street from a Whole Foods so you know Matt stopped in and used his discount. After we had a bunch of time to kill so we went to a huge video store where Conor scored the original only Star Wars trilogy on laser disk. He doesn’t have a player but we figured we could buy one on eBay.

Bo took us down to a place called Gasworks (Shitty Beatles were not playing unfortunately) where were able to catch a sweet view of the space needle thing and tooons of sail boats.

The place reminded me of something you’d see in a romantic comedy in the background, especially cause the boats weren’t sailing to any destination, they were just going back and forth like they were hired extras. I’ve got some more shots to scan from this spot coming up soon. From here eventually we’d be on our way to grab Justin and the story will continue.