Hey everyone, we arrived home on the 20th of November safe and sound. Thanks to Pinback, Ted Leo and The Pharmacists, The Velvet Teen, and Say Hi for an amazing experience over the last 2 months. Everyone of your bands are comprised of amazing people and musicians and we couldn’t have asked for a better experience, we will miss you all very much.
Imagine this…
You just played a show in a foreign country in a city where they speak mostly French. You load out your gear and you and your band are looking forward to a night of sleep. You drive a few hours outside of town and find a cheap hotel to crash in. It’s probably about 3:00 am at this point and you just want to go to sleep. You go inside to get the lobby, only to be greeted by an annoyingly smug older gentleman who doesn’t really care about his job and may or may not be drunk.
After paying, he tells you that your room is Room 123 and hands you a key. You get back into the van and drive to where the room is, everyone gets files out of the vehicle leisurely while you go to the room to unlock it. You slip the key card into the slot and the green light blinks so you turn the door handle, swing the door open about 3 inches, but something is preventing the door from opening. You hear a woman scream like she is about to get murdered. It is terrifying. A few seconds later your realize that the chain slider lock is preventing the door from opening so you immediately shut it and run back into the van expecting to be shot.
It turns out the older gentleman who works the graveyard shift in the lobby of the EconoLodge in Cornwall, Ontario has problems remembering which rooms have guests staying in them. He also didn’t seemed phased at all when I told him about what happened. Responding with, “Well that doesn’t happen a lot. Let me get you another room.”
I am just glad that who ever was in that room put the chain lock on, or else she would have been very rudely awoken by 6 dazed young men and might have shot us in self defense. Anyway, lady, who ever you are and if you are reading this, I appogize for the neglect of the EconoLodge and am sorry for startling you in your sleep. From this experience, I have learned to knock on my hotel room door before opening it no matter what from now on. Thanks for understanding.
-Patrick
Here’s a photo of us visiting the Vagrant Records offices
We finished up our leg with Ted Leo and The Pharmacists a few days ago and are currently about a half hour outside of San Francisco. It was sad to say goodbye after a string of amazing shows and getting to know them as people a little better. Fargo, ND will not be a night that I soon forget.
A few things to note…
National Public Radio’s World Cafe with host David Dye can be heard on nearly 200 stations nationwide. Fans can find their local station by going to our website: http://worldcafe.org
or they can listen online to the WXPN/Philadelphia stream Monday to Friday 2pm to 4pm Eastern Standard Time by going to: http://xpn.org/listen_live/listen.php
Hello everyone,
We’ve been on the road now since Sunday and things couldn’t be going better. Last night, we played the House of Blues in New Orleans. The entire venue, down to the finest detail was amazing. After our show (it was an earlier show) we went out on the town for a crazy night of gambling, boozing, and watching Doyle chase some ladies.
Doyle won multiple hundreds of dollars on the blackjack tables around midnight and everything just got crazy from there. Didn’t get to the hotel until 6am and slept a bit, now we are on our way to Tallahassee for the show tonight at FSU. There will definitely be some photos posted soon so everyone can see a bit of what our life is like and will be like for the next 2 months.
Hope to see you out there,
Patrick
Our record, Silver Storms is now out and available for public consumption. It should be available at any fine retailer of music including, your local indie, fye, barnes and noble and best buy stores…
Then again, you can always use the powers of the Internets and get it from:
Thanks much. We leave this Sunday for our mega long ultra tour. Starting with a week with Pinback, who also have a new record out last week. Hope to see you on the road!
UPDATE: THE BEST REVIEW OF ALL TIME.
The A-Sides are a mountain-shattering quintet from Philadelphia, the land where Ben Franklin stood when the future one hundred-dollar bill was lit up by a lightning bolt. Philly, along with the cheese steak, is also the birthplace of Mike Schmidt’s mustache. My friend Hayley attends Temple University, also in Philadelphia, official backdrop of the movie with the same name where a flimsy Tom Hanks won an Oscar for having AIDS. Philly!
A band of leisurely constructionists, The A-Sides manufacture prize buildings of implausible mass on their second effort Silver Storms, the follow up to their 2005 debut Hello, Hello on the Prison Jazz imprint.
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Good morning,
We are playing a “Free at Noon” show at WXPN and World Cafe Live this Friday at noon. Everyone is invited. To attend, just RSVP on the Free at Noon page on XPN.org.
WXPN is an all-music public radio station in Philly that features great local and national artists. On Fridays they offer free concerts that are broadcast live - on the radio at 88.5FM in Philadelphia, and online at XPN.org/listen - and recorded for the NPR Live Friday archive. You can find a full archive of “Free at Noon” concerts for your listening pleasure at NPR.org.
Hey everyone,
As you may or may not have noticed, the new website has launched. All of the posts from our blog have been imported and all of our latest tour dates have been posted. There are still a few kinks to work out and plenty of additions still to come.
Speaking of, you should also check out our latest live video from Ted in the lower right hand corner of the main page. It is from our record release show and there are balloons and crazyness and some small technical issues, but it gives you a little slice of the awesome vibe that was going on that evening. A little less than 2 weeks before we leave for our massive fall tour… I can feel the seasons changing.
We had an amazing time this weekend in Scranton. Test Pattern is an incredible venue and rad artspace. We were fortunate enough to be playing with two bands that are close friends of ours- Brown Recluse Sings (trumpet player Jessie Todd plays on our new album) and former label mates The Sw!ms.
The show had a palpable, incredible energy that might have come from a certain consciousness that we were marking the end of our 2007 summer. In true summer spirit, we later went swimming (and created an intense whirlpool) in Brian’s aboveground swimming pool, even though it was cold as hell up there. Thanks, Scranton-folks, for an amazing time!
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Our infinite fall tour dates are getting more and more complete so here’s the latest.
8/30 Philly, Johnny Brendas *RECORD RELEASE*9/2 Scranton, PA @ Test Pattern w/ the Sw!ms!
9/25 Houston, TX @ Numbers w/ Pinback
9/26 New Orleans, LA @ House Of Blues w/ Pinback
9/27 Tallahassee, FL @ Club Downunder w/ Pinback
9/28 Orlando, FL @ The Social w/ Pinback
9/29 Gainesville, FL @ Common Grounds w/ Pinback
10/9 Columbus, OH @ LC Pavilion w/Ted Leo & The Pharmacists (*note…show moved from Newport Music Hall)
10/10 St. Louis, MO @ The Gargoyle w/Ted Leo & The Pharmacists
10/11 Recording a Daytrotter Session (www.daytrotter.com)
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