SXSW

I'm gonna keep it short and simple. A lot of good bands and a lot of free beer! Dan played a block party show by UT and I threw up some stencils at the Shepard Fairey bandana show.

Tour Splits. Only a 28 Hour Bus Ride to Austin for DMLH and Caustic

ARIZONA
NEW MEXICO
NEW MEXICO

TEXAS


INVOLVING:

12 Cups of Coffee
11 Hundred Miles Traveled
10 Stories of Meth Addiction
9 Hours of Waiting
8 Witnessed Sex Offers for Money
7 Pieces of Luggage
6 Children Crying
5 Cities to Transfer
4 Stops at McDonalds (Greyhound must have some deal with them, I kept to the stale bagels from Flagstaff)
3 Hours of Sleeping
2 Ladies fighting
and 1 Junkie ODing in the Dallas Bus Station!!

Flagstaff, AZ: Finding Peace in the Canyon and Getting Joosed at a House Party

On Friday, we took a day trip out to the Grand Canyon to collect our thoughts and enjoy the beautiful desert. We hiked about a mile and a half in to a spot called "Ooh-Aah Point" on the Kaibab Trail. The name speaks for itself as the point takes you about 40 feet away from the canyon wall, giving you an almost 360 degree view of the canyon.
It was incredible and no picture we took did the canyon justice. I hope anyone who reads this gets the opportunity to see this place sometime in their life because it will blow you away.




The next day, Dan had the opportunity to play at a house party by the NAU. Everyone was getting "JOOSED" leading to an insane high energy dance party that went on until the early morning.
College Parties. Wow.

Flagstaff, AZ: Haunted Hotel Show and After Party in the Humphrey Bogart Suite

When we first started booking this tour, we really had no intention of getting paid for any of our gigs. In fact, we were mostly looking to perform and make shirts for benefits. So it came as a surprise to me when I received an email from the booking agent at the Monte V asking me how many beds we needed and whose name to write on the check.
WHAT?!?! Money?! BEDS?!
Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.....
So we invited our friends The Canyon Animals (made up of kite93, jack the mc,and dj samplistic), Parable Paul, and Unfiltered to play the show along with DMLH and Andreas for a Coast to Coast Hip Hop Showcase!

Everyone rocked well on the mylar backed stage and we got the videos to prove it:
Unfiltered:


Parable Paul:


Kite93:


Jack the MC:


Canyon Animals:


Andreas:


DMLH:



After the show, we cracked open the bubbly in the Humphrey Bogart Suite, and had a toast with all our old and new friends in Arizona that joined us for one of the craziest nights we've had on tour!
Free hotel rooms and paid gigs?! I still can't believe it!







Unfiltered before the champagne.......
...Unfiltered after the champagne....

Flagstaff, AZ: Marcia and Dre Find Friendship over Karaoke

I'm sure Marcia and Dre will be the first to admit that they haven't always seen eye to eye on this trip. They both come from very different places and have very different ways of looking at the world, which at many times had led to frustrating arguments between all of us. They had never met before we left for this trip, but I feel like by the time we made it Flagstaff they had really started to form a unique friendship.


Don't just stand there....




This whole trip Marcia had wanted to go out to karaoke since she had only been once in her life. You wouldn't have thought that though by her amazing confidence and personality on the karaoke stage!
We decided to surprise her with a birthday cake to make up for the fact that she spent her 21st birthday on a farm and in a car on the way to San Francisco. In the video below, she goes up to sing "Gloria" with Kyler while we get the cake ready. After the song, the whole bar sings happy birthday to the "Queen of Karaoke"!


And the award for Drunkest Person to Eat Shit goes to.....




*Note* I wrote this blog post when I was waaaaaaaaasted.

Think we had our car fixed? Think again!

We made it up to Flagstaff only after our car broke down AGAIN! It died while barreling down the mountain into Camp Verde and Marcia had to hang out the window with a flashlight so we could see the road in front of us. We took the first exit we could onto General Crook road, a small dark road with no cars in site. We tried flagging down the few cars that did go by but no one would stop for us. Our friend Dana eventually had to drive down from Flagstaff and use AAA to have our car towed all the way to her house as we slept in the back of her car exhausted and hungry.


We knew by now the problem was the alternator, but we weren't quite sure how much it would cost to have fixed or that we could afford. Luckily though, the next day Dana's friend Kyler showed up in the morning and offered to help replace our alternator. What we thought would only take an hour or so became an all day project. We were so thankful to Kyler and offered him money/food/beer, none of which he would take.


Thanks to Kyler we saved money and got the Green Machine up and running with no problems. We saw him here and there all week, forcing drinks and clove cigarettes on him as thanks for saving our trip and reminding us that there are still good people out there willing to help you when you need it.

Tempe, AZ: Party at the Canyon Animal House

We finally made it to Phoenix with a few hours to kill before arriving at the Canyon Animal house in Tempe. In noticing all the stencils around the house, I took to testing some of my stencil on old boards in the backyard to make sure that Homeland Security hadn't ruined anything.




Andreas and DMLH opened the show, followed by some really great performances by Unfiltered, Parable Paul, Hearing Aids, Canyon Animals, and Adverse.












The next day, DMLH and Andreas spent all day recording a track with Adverse and The Canyon Animals for The Canyon Animals' new album. The chorus is all about "watching it grow" and should be available for the public to listen to in the next few months. It's incredible!

Highway 8 out of Yuma: Car Troubles and Border Patrol

After reuniting with Dre in San Diego, we left late in the evening of the 27th for Phoenix. We decided to take Highway 8 most of the way, not realizing how close it really got to the Mexican border. About 30 miles outside of Yuma, the headlights started to dim and we realized our battery was dying. Nothing was around us except for desert and suspicious 4 wheelers on the hill shining huge spotlights( I later found out about all the problems happening along the Mexican border and am convinced those 4 wheelers were Minutemen). We found a gas station a few miles down to buy a new battery which Dan and Marcia installed with no problems.




Relieved to have a fresh new battery in the old Green Machine, we headed back out on the road straight for Phoenix, or so we thought. Before we even hit Yuma, the car started to die again and we realized this problem was bigger than just the battery. We pulled into a gas station in Yuma where Berl, the cashier who was obviously high on speed, told us of a 24 hour diner where we could drink coffee until the morning came and the auto shop opened.

We spent hours at the diner playing dominoes as the cook told us about all the good drugs he's had that came from Oregon. At dawn, we returned to the car and got it to start. Instead of waiting around Yuma for a mechanic, we decided again to get back on highway and head for Phoenix where we could deal with the problem and have time to make it to the show.
...
If the pictures below aren't obvious enough, the car died again, and we spent the night sleeping at a rest stop.

The desert sun came beaming through the windshield around 8 in the morning, waking Dan and I up in the front seat. We started the car again, but weren't on the highway long before seeing a sign on the side of the road that said something like "Border Patrol 1 mile, be prepared to stop".
I dont want to get into the details of this story seeing as how some of us havent even gone to court yet, but our car was searched and some of us were detained in the van below.




All I can say is that we did make it to Phoenix that day, but the first 12 hours spent in Arizona were tiring. After all the jokes we made in the car about "finding our dreams in Yuma" before we even left California, it is Yuma that gets the last laugh as we spend this next month figuring out how to make it to back there for court.