Down in the Gravel Pit

So Drew has got a house. This wild ass motherfucker now lives in my crazy ass hometown of Patchogue in a house. By himself. That’s a thing. Like a real thing. In this photo he was just mowing the lawn. Weird shit is goin on in the world man…

Anyway, Drew invited us to use his new basement to record our new LP in. Perfect cause there’s nothing in it yet and it’s sort of U-shaped. So I decided for optimal bleed separation I would put two amps in either corner, and the drums in the middle. That way everyone can walk to the center near the drums and hear each other, or go closer to their amp to hear themself.

The first day of soundproofing was quite an obstacle, considering we used bricks, cardboard and a little bit of love.

So far we’re mainly working on drums because the guitar tones aren’t quite there yet, a and our bass player can never do anything on weekdays, the only time we can.

Drew also has a nice big backyard to go crash on after we sweat down there for a while.

Andre taking advanatage right thurr

So far Patchogue has been interesting. I always felt it was a weird ass place but because it was what I was used to it was somehow normal. It’s both been describes as “the Lower East Side of Long Island” and “The Twin Peaks of Long Island” by Drew and Andre. Pretty accurate. More than ever, the freaks come out at night – eh, scratch that they just come out ALL the time.

Having a place to leave stuff totally set has been sick though. We’ve been banging through shit whenever we can.

Only big problem down there is the heat, my god, the heat! Drew finally got a de-humidifier which has been a lifesaver, but it’s still pretty brutal after a couple takes.

There is a papusaria around the corner, which at first Andre scoffed at

but after I convinced him to go, he admitted it wasn’t too bad

still, no shortage of weird happenings in there though.

We still got a bunch of work to do, but it’s damn good to be getting a move on this shit

Matt doing some demo vocals

DP is also in record mode a bit. We started working on these songs back in December, before the tour which I don’t think I ever posted the photos from. I think the coldness of it all just crushed me and I didn’t wanna reflect at the time. Anyway, we are now more comfortable with them than we were at the time we started tracking them so we’ll probably restart next month some time. It was fun to have a track to put this little clip together with though. Matt sounding strong.

We land in Olympia and I had no idea what to expect. Bo had told us about it and how it wasn’t much of a city. My friend Tony grew up out there and always spoke highly of it. In fact, the place we were about to play at (called Old School Pizza) was his old pizza place. He told me I would love it. The show that night was supposed to be a late show so we had time to kill. We rolled up to scope it out and lost our shit. The whole side of it is a HUGE Marvel character mural.

Me and Drew were psyched out of our minds and had to get photos of ourselves with it. We literally sat there naming every person we could for about 20 minutes

And of course we had to hard style the shit.

So we walked around Olympia’s “downtown” area, which was really just a few blocks of bars and a few shops. Not much to see. The show was running late. We met up with the fellas hooking it up and they basically said they were waiting for Gag, who was coming back from Rain Fest, to start it.

We came in and started scoping the inside out…. yo, this place is sick! So many ill 80s movie posters and shit

Then there was a whole room of just classic sports promotional materials

Dope video games and what not. I woulda loved this place if I had it growing up

A whole wall dedicated to the team most local to them

Like yo, this is the coolest collection of stuff in one place I have seen in a while

And this Star Wars poster?!? you kiddin me?

I have no idea what this is. but it’s cool. Anyway, the show started at about midnight. We sat in the van for hours after eating the frankly pretty bad pizza. I know it’s fucked up to say that, but yo… I’m from New York so that shit is bad to me. They are trying their best, but it aint much compared to home. Anyway, we sat in the van and just read each other Dad Jokes for hours. I would say Andre was probably the only one who coulda been drunk, but it felt like we all were cause we were just tiredly giggling to ourselves. Hours later we hear the first band, Slouch, setting up so we head in. They were fuckin great! Female fronted “spooky” hardcore.

I wish the recording had the same feeling as the live show, but that doesn’t take away from it. It’s just a weird mix. Anyway, they were awesome and super nice people. This is the best song I think from the demo. They got a new one up that sounds soooo much sicker! We got set up after and blazed through our set. I would say it went well, considering the crowd seemed a little more on the arty side of punk. Sometimes we don’t go over well with that scene. The coolest part about the set was the crowd sort of “bop” dance they all seemed to be doing in unison. It wasn’t anything like moshing, it was just like… I dunno how to describe it, just like bopping about? They did some twisting and shit like they were listening to Chubby Checker. Afterwards we sold some stuff and got offers for places to stay. Everyone was super nice. Bo found out he did a tour with the dude who set up the show like 10 years before. I guess it was Shook Ones and Sinking Ships or something? That was weird and funny.

We decided to drive through the night a bit and get closer to Portland because most of us hadn’t ever really spent much time there. The drive wasn’t too long, and was sped along by the fact we exchanged ghost stories and UFO information. I think we left off at the story about the Staten Island Clown (which I hadn’t heard yet) before we rolled into one of the most desolate parking lots ever. We all just expected to be swallowed up by something horrible after all the stories, but it turns out we found a loophole in the system. If you show up at a hotel at like 3 in the morning you can sleep two nights there for the price of one. BOOM. Technically you’re there in the morning so you can just stay until the next a.m. What an amazing find.

So we got up and headed out for some food in the morning. Andre stole my camera at some point and left me this message.

The food place was cool. It had vegan stuff. I got some sort of sausage and gravy thing? I can’t recall but it was good. Cecelia decided to take a bus down to meet us so that was a pleasant surprise. We caught up with her and were then headed off to see Gin Hicks. Conor’s friend, and tattoo artist, who has recently relocated to the West coast from the East. Conor and Drew were both gonna get some tattoos at her new place.

Her place was super nice and she set up in her living room

First up was Conor’s lip tattoo

He came up with the hilarious idea of getting a Brain Slug tattoo on his LIP, and the initials of said tattoo read LxIxP. More on that later

Gin’s cat was the most entertaining part of the visit for me. I am obsessed.

There is the final product

Drew also got something on his arm, but he had gone to hang with a friend and I didn’t see the process. Next for Conor was a leg tattoo.

This was to be from a drawing that Matt did while stoned of Gene Simmons as a Yeti or something… I don’t get it either.

Hey! Dead Broke

Back to the kitty, he was the best

And he was showing off for the camera

I mean look at this ham

Seriously??!!

Anyway so the tattoo was underway and it was cool cause Matt got something that Conor drew tattooed on him and so Conor was gonna surprise him and return the favor

Here’s a side by side of the drawing and the tattoo

Pretty freakin hilarious

The cat, the cat

Last one…

Once these three got back from getting coffee me some of us went record shopping while the tattooing continued

This place we went to, whose name escapes me, was so fucking cool. They sold people’s collections on consignment. So that means there was about 15 to 20 different A-Z’s to flip through. Each one had a different flavor obviously. Some had some really dope shit. Some were a little pricey.

Gotta love the risqué shit on the walls

I found these for Drew, because Godflesh is his shit

Had to get the Dre with Dre shott

After record shopping we still had some time to kill. I went off to find a bar that was playing the playoffs, as the Rangers were doing well at the time

We then headed to Voodoo donuts which had this clever sign in the window.

The donuts were kind of insane… like something out of a Simpsons episode.

Andre got a box of a couple with like peanut butter, oreos and all that. I think I musta made myself sick

We headed over to the last gig of the tour. It was Coke Bust, Replica, Raw Nerves and The Stops. Every band was totally killer on the show.

Yes they are

They had an Addams Family pinball machine at the venue, so they win.

We got a really dope reaction for it being our  first time. People went off. But Coke Bust’s set killed. They blew me away that night

I don’t know their shit that much, but I will say they are way more crushing live.

So much energy and speed

We had a great night but that was it. Last show. So we headed back to enjoy our second night at the hotel and then get up early to drive back to Seattle for the flight. I’m lucky I wake up well because everyone else slept through the alarms. I had to act like the parent getting their kids up for school. It was hilarious.

The drive back to SeaTac was smooth and chill. I can’t remember if it was this trip or last but I feel like I saw a bunch of hot air balloons? It was a bummer to be leaving because after having such a great time it woulda been nice to kick it with everyone for longer.

Cecelia got us a nice group shot before we loaded our shit onto the plane. The west coast incarnation of the Slug was saying goodbye.

Back in New York and I couldn’t be happier to head different languages and see different shades. Also, this girl’s Price socks. Hard to see, I know, but they were there.

And of course smash back down on the couch with my three favorite ladies