Tonight at the Parish. Brothers and Sisters (10pm) w/ Quien es BOOM! (11pm) and the Glass Family (12am). Get there early because we're starting things off with what will probably prove to be a very wobbly tribute to the late, great Buck Owens.

The Replacements Return!

I got up early and went to the doctor in the pouring rain (seriously, what's up with the apocalyptic deluge?). I've had a nasty cough/sore throat/fever for a couple of weeks now, but I feel I'm through the worst of it and am getting better. Looking back at my medical history with my doctor, we realized that this is the fourth year in a row that I've come in to see him in feb/march with the exact same symptoms. Weird, huh? I'm beginning to think that it may actually be my workplace. I had all sorts of other theories but that is the one I decided on. An old moldy building filled with old moldy people makes me sick. He gave me some pills and some things I spray up my nose and an asthma inhaler-type thing. Apparently, I was wheezing when I breathed. Fun times are ahead. (I also got another ambien scrip. score!)

We had a rather trying band practice last night. We were attempting to fine tune some songs and work on new ones but everyone was feeling edgy. I sure wasn't into it. There's this one new song that we've been trying to work out for a few months and every time it's brought up it brings everything down. Things just stop. I think because I don't like the song, my attention and enthusiasm just die when we play it.

Everything else is going well with the band though. We're taking April off to work on new songs and travel a bit then we have a full May and a couple of shows in June set up. The plan now is to go on a three week tour starting in late July. We're waiting to hear back if we have a booking agent or now. I hope so because I sure as hell don't ever want to book a tour again.

~~~~~~~~~~~upcoming shows~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fri March 31 @ the Parish - Brothers and Sisters w/ the Glass Family, Quien es Boom! (cd release show)
Sat April 29 @ Emo's - Brothers and Sisters w/ Gris Gris, Brian Glaze

Buck Owens died this weekend. So did Nikki Sudden. Sad sad. I loved listening to Buck Owens. Over the past year he's become my standard, fall-back music when everything else seemed played out. I never listened to much Nikki Sudden. Tried to get into it a few times but it didn't really click. Maybe I'll sit down and give it an extra spin tonight.

"Texas arresting people in bars for being drunk."

God, I hate the modern world.

Is this what everyone is like when they're at work? Mind wondering off on tangents that splinter in hundreds of directions while the body is stuck in the here and now. I have to stop myself from emailing people with every little idea that pops into my head because otherwise, the emails would never stop.

These days I mainly think about band stuff almost continually. It's almost overwhelming. And causes quite a bit of anxiety. I don't like being out of places I feel comfortable (mentally and physically) but it forces me to those places. Maybe that's good, I don't know.

I think I've decided that I need a physical job instead of all this desk stuff. Screen printing was hard work but at least it was rewarding (no, I'm not going to ever do that again) but there are a million ways to be creative and industrious. I've just got learn a few more of them.

I'm back at work. I'm snot-filled and feverish. SXSW week was fun and tiresome. It was very much a working vacation. I didn't get to see that many bands this year due to our playing so much. I was fighting off getting sick for much and the week and finally gave in saturday night. I'll write more later but here's a quick list of bands/people I saw...

the New Pornographers, Ted Leo, Swearing at Motorists, Black Heart Procession, Rye Coalition, Ray Davies (!), Isobel Campbell, Chin Up Chin Up, Damien Jurado, Dengue Fever, Field Music, Jason Collett

There were probably a few more but that's off the top of my head. I'll tell you who I didn't get to see, the Twilight Singers (despite having a badge and waiting at the front of the line for an hour).

OK, one final list of all the brothers and sisters shows this week. I know all this is terribly exciting to read about.

Wed March 15 @ End of an Ear - 5pm

Wed March 15 @ ATX Afterparty - 11:50pm (east 5th + I-35)

Thurs March 16 @ Emo's IV - Kork Agency Showcase - 8:30pm

Sat March 18 @ Flamingo Cantina - Misprint Party - 5pm

Sat March 18 @ Longbranch Inn - 9:30pm

OK, Vienna and Moscow are back on. Maybe. Probably. My head hurts from uncertainty. This week is going to be nuts. We got a small preview of sxsw last friday when we played twice in one day. It felt oddly like being on tour in your own town. Both of those shows went pretty well, especially the waterloo instore.

I'm variously excited and dreading this week. I work today and tomorrow but am taking off wed-friday. So I'm playing five shows and working for trail for two all while trying to see as much as I can. I went saturday over to Leroy's so he could give my bike a tune-up. My plan is to throw it in the back of my car, park downtown and then bike around to all the shows. I also found out that the big party we're playing on wed is now competing with a free spoon/echo and the bunnymen show a few blocks away.

I'm listening to the new Neko Case record right now. Is it odd that I like her voice more than I actually like her records?

Maybe my irrational fear of highway driving isn't so irrational after all. It says here that the lifetime odds of dying from an car accident are 1 in 228. Although, I guess that's better than the lifetime odds of dying form a self-inflicted gun shot which are 1 in 218.

So I spent the morning wading through some of the sxsw free day parties, sending in RSVP's. I sent emails to all the parties that I *might* want to go to. For a full (I mean full) listing go to showlistaustin.com. Dan rules and works very hard to get that shit together. Link him as much as possible. And donate. The Austinist has a more concise list of parties that need rsvp's and how to get on the lists.

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Brothers and Sisters has two shows this friday (march 10)

6pm @ Waterloo Records. Instore. Free. Fun.

10pm @ Flamingo Cantina. We're last of 3 or 4 bands (we actually play around midnight-ish). Please come out! Besides the fact that I'd like to see your smiling faces, it looks really good for us to bring out bunches of people when we headline!

I meant to post this before but I guess it slipped my mind. The Brothers and Sisters CD is finally available for sale online. Should anyone have the desire, you can pick it up on the waterloo records website.

It was a nice, busy weekend. Friday night I was totally itching to go out but apparently nothing was going on. I was dead tired from working all week but also completely restless. I ended up running into Andrea and Isaac at the Sidebar. Andrea almost puked up her irish carbomb. It was that kind of night. They bugged out early (12ish) so I went to emo's to see John Farmer's band, What Made Milwaukee Famous (good band, ponderous name). There I ran into my friend Lauren and one of her old high school pals. We watched the band and made fun of Farmer's little bass player dance that he does. Went for last call over at a craphole that will remain unnamed.

Saturday I was woken by a phone call from Amy asking me to a wedding that afternoon. I love weddings - free food, drink, happy dancing people. I didn't know anyone there except for Amy and she didn't know anyone except me and the groom but it was nice anyway. It was at an old ranch on Lake Austin. We ended up at a table full of name dropping Californians who were nice enough, I suppose, if you could resist the urge to stab them in the eyes with forks. The guy next to me talked about how he was friends with the director of Bend It Like Beckham which didn't particularly impress me (Keira Knightly connection not withstanding). The only name dropped that impressed me was that he was good buddies with Maura Tierney's husband. That's a name that will impress me. After lunch/dinner/food whatever, Amy and I strolled/hiked down to the lake/river. Nice afternoon (of course, I didn't stroll/hike in heels). I was so beat and tired after the wedding (and margaritas afterwards) that I came home and passed out pretty early.

Sunday was band arts -n- crafts day. We painted a huge banner to hang over waterloo records during our instore. I felt like we should hold it up for the football team to run through. Also we made lots of buttons and glued cd covers and watched the academy awards. Three 6 Mafia are now Academy Award Winnings Artists. How cool/weird is that? Also, all those movies sucked. I don't need to see them to know this. Also, Michelle Williams should have won best supporting actress. I didn't see the gay cowboy movie but she was on Dawson's Creek (she was really great in the Baxter, too!). Rachel Weisz, the winner, while being a totally attractive woman, was terrible in the Constant Gardner. For the whole movie she seemed to be doing a cut-rate imitation of Kate Winslet.

Today is Texas Independence Day. On March 2, 1836, the Texas Declaration of Independence was signed. Sadly not much is planned. No parades, etc. This lame page has some ideas of ways to celebrate. Personally, I'm thinking of going to Mother Egan's Pub for Texas Independence Day Happy Hour w/ Kinky Friedman.

I finished Interface which ruled (thanks Choo!) but now I'm without anything to read. There are two things that I want to read but one is out of print and the other I'd have to order. Errg. I hate the comedown from really digging a book and then you're left with nothing. Neal Stephenson does this to me every time I finish one of his books. He really needs to write faster.

ps. After a bit of interweb research I found out that the Borders up on 183 has Cobweb. I'll try to hit it after band practice!