so, to summarize: basically the best tour i've had the pleasure to be apart of in quite some time, if not ever. no shit. the quality of the bands and musicians, the crowd response and attentiveness, the interaction of all the bands and how much crazy fun we had, and the flow of the music presented each night. those of you who made it out--thank you so much. those of you who didn't (barring work, school or extreme injurious emergency) are hilarious. you missed a hell of a night.

murder by death treated us so well and were such an amazing group of individuals and musicians. we are deeply indebted to them for asking us along. we had the privilege of getting to know all the new material from their new record and it all fucking rips. they forced whiskey and pb and j down our throats, took us out to eat seafood and frog legs in tampa after strolling in the ocean, they made us dance naked, shot us with darts, initiated us into the hfc club, took us to titty city, showed us what selling merch is really about and basically reminded us how much fun touring is. and this was every night.

we had the dubious distinction of having to follow one william elliot whitmore every night, who elicited no less than 4 but usually about 6 goosebump moments per set. seriously. you can hear a mouse fart (see: pin drop) when he's on stage because nobody talks. everybody gives 100% attention when he sings. and it's merited. he's that good.

speaking of will whitmore; because he's an absolute rager against the 'man', he, of course, drove his own car on tour with no insurance. well they stopped him for speeding in atlanta and impounded his car. he cut his losses and left it in the atl and did the rest of the tour as an impromptu member of the 'times. even had his own bench seat in big black, our trusty steed.

next up : home for holidays. a "quik trip" to the upper midwest in late JAN that also includes a show with the plastic constellations in chicago. we had the pleasure of rocking faces off with those fellows on the mbd tour and they are kick ass. they have a new record coming out on french kiss records around that same time. after that we are finishing our EP for stiff slack records, aka the japanese ep, with j robbins.

i love your mouth. ae