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To friends old and new. To the road. To leaving a bit of us there.

Niels & Selma, Julien & 5ive Roses, Franz, Claude, Christoph, Ana, Sebastian, Harti, Stephanie, Charlotte, Josephina & Marco, Anrei, Ana/Jana/Johana, Andrea, Nicola, Ninetta, Zac/Rachael/Eddy/Matt, the Texans, Mateo & Ana, Marco, Amadeo, Stella, Chiara, Fabio, Gion-Paulo, Kara, Alex, Pierre (and his mom), Sam, Kevin, Flo & Jennie, Julien, Christelle, Geo/Sam/Herve, Pippo, Ben, Emilie, Judith, Alice, Frederic, David, Marie, Jamila, Marienne/Clay, Benjamin & Cha, Michl, Keith, Andrea, Mel, Sebastian, Sabine, Marc, Aimee/Evan/Noah, Niels, Daniel, Tina, Allie, Martina, Fifi & Oliver, Jan, Wici, Emma, Arne, and everyone else we could only know momentarily (for now...)

Minds sharp. Friends close. We're gonna need them when the time comes.

Hamburg! Radio show at Byte FM where we managed to cut power to entire studio, followed by a fantastic last night. Great times with great friends (Rochelle! the Swedes!), new friends, and no sleep until takeoff. Many thanks to follow, but for now I sleep in the arms of my loved ones and fight off post-tour depression. Goodnight, sweet hearts.

Believe it or not, our first gig in what appears to be the financial center of Germany, where narrow cobblestone alleys have given way to ING headquarters. Can't read in the van past 4 in the afternoon. Nonetheless a great night. AWolf along for the ride from Munich, and made new friends from the Carolinas. Sabine is a most exquisite host and promoter. One drive left, people! See you in Hamburg perhaps.

Been collecting some data over the tour and are finally ready to publish tentative results. Granted, they're not quite ready for journals, but I think we're on to something.

The following figure shows a day in the life in our bodies' chemistry.

The reason you're looking at a topless, pantsless German dude is because he lost a bet about who would win the election--we chose Obama and he very foolishly chose Hillary and/or McCain. Granted, this was six months ago but still, what a dumb choice. So anyway, we got him--good. Instead of us playing pantsless, he served us shots mid-set wearing U.S.A. boxer shorts. I think we collectively consider it a victory both for the American People and the band.

Goes to show you, never bet on a candidate before an economic collapse. Duh.

entschuldidong

Below behold the owner of the domain penisfactor.com having a cold one at our gig at Kopfeck.

guest post by the owner of www.takenbysurprise.net

Huh. An interesting day in Brussels. Ironic that we finally had extra time in a place where we've got zero friends. Did our best to explore but ended up being scolded for ordering french fries at a fries joint. We almost left when he told us that they didn't have french fries--only Belgian fries. Snap.

On a positive note, got to taste the very most stinkiest cheese that any three of us have ever experienced. So stinky that they serve the block you order with a small bit of bread that you're meant to use to hold the block while you cut it. We were warned that touching it with bare fingers would mean cheesy fingers for one whole week (thanks for the heads up, Benjamin). Oh--the bar also serves 400 varieties of Belgian beers.

We were surrounded by angry cats as we tried to sleep. Fun times.

And enjoy Jason's version of a drunk, fat Elvis warming up the drunk, fat stage.

What a night. Many friends. Choice of entree. And we played with none other than Andy Yorke, beloved brother of Thom. Spent last night at our friend Pippo's amazing flat and had today to take in gay Paris. Overwhelmed by romance. Video chatted with Patricia and Tom Curtes. Presently blogging from Mister Bed Hotel (for real), one (small) step above crusty Roman squats. Five euro for WiFi can't even get us a pic for tonight. Pray for us. Great Job!

Generally speaking we're not big fans of a night off whilst on tour, but for Paris we'll make an exception. A rather leisurely yet triumphant drive from Metz ended in cappucinos and a bottle of Cotes du Rhone in a cozy 3rd district cafe, and Radio Campus Paris (local 93.9 fm) hosted us for some lively questions, answers, and live music before our show tomorrow (will be up here www.radiocampusparis.org soon...). High drama is sure to ensue, people, so don't change this dial.

Killer time with killer folks. Kinda awesome that we can legitimately say that we 'closed the place down'. Farewell to cute, hot, friendly Le Tunnel.

Oh--and tonight's homemade quiche kicked serious ass.

man. looong couple o days, but ps is back on track. in metz tonight, visiting some old friends and, and, and... playing the last ever show at le tunnel! i just asked alex, the promoter and very good friend, how long the place has been around and he just sighed. that long, yea. anyway. it should be a special night, i think. i was joking with tim, saying we should either trash the place or suggest everyone buy at least one copy of the new LP as a lasting memory, heh. we'll see how the mood strikes. video coming soon!

Uhhhhhhhhh......

Bhaaauuzzzauu.....

Just finished a marathon drive from the far side of Italy to Eastern France through the dark giants that are the midnight Swiss Alps. Now it's 6AM and we're dazed as much from the ride as we are from breaking routine by not playing tonight. Franz (world's toughest driver among other things) is my new personal hero. Howard Zinn (the entire second half of People's History)as narrated by Matt Damon's buttery tenor kept us alive.

But new way to make the drives interesting: handing out Chuck totes to cute girls at reststops.

Sleepy time.



Agrandir le plan

Man oh man. Giorni molto bene in Italy. We've crossed the Alps a couple of times, taken in beautiful Genoa, shared a dinner of homegrown eggs, veggies, and wine, and more. A couple of nights ago was a fun show with Parenthical Girls and last night we stayed in a gigantic complex that was once a monestary--until Napolean turned it into a morgue. (Ask Tim about it being haunted.) And tonight was a rad time in a new club in a small town in Marche, where we are about to sleep in a 200 year-old ex-pig house, on a gorgeous old farm.

Check out the place in this pic.

We're connected, oh friends and lovers.

Our new friends of friends of friends have so graciously put us up for our night off, and between Italian TV, Franz on German internet, and Michael's addition of the live MSNBC widget, we're all over this mutha. Stay tuned. We may even know before you.

right outside venice. raining all day. long drive. but being stuck in italy is far better than the states. three lovely guys are hosting us for the night, cooking dinner as i write this. also just passed around this crazy alcoholic mix from water bottles? it's very strange, but anything to help us sleep is fine by me. good times. and yet, the most important, it's election day back home. tomorrow we wake up new? over and out

so we're waiting for franz to return with the van. had some trouble yesterday that sounds like nothing, but that's what turns into crazy times in the middle of nowhere, right? gotta be safe. the show last night was fun. lots of old faces and a bit of redemption for tim and i... we played "the big room" years ago, to five people. even handed a print out that stated we had one pre-paying customer. needless to say, this time was much better. never sure walking into a situation on a monday night. either way, the folks at arena are top notch. i alway hope that bands doing this sorta thing realize how much other people care, you know? we'll be back next year.

another fine one, passau. rapid blog here before the battery runs out. played with two wonderful folks last night that somehow connected the dots between our sordid pasts out west, college, the midwest, etc. and what we're doing now. funny how small, these scenes... off to vienna. OPEC awaits!

Not only do we find ourselves with a pair of hotel rooms for the night, but we've got the GPS in a van with seating for an octet. Here's Franz after the german Best Buy couldn't find us the correct mounting device for said navigation system. Played to a room full of kids in bean bags and pulled out almost every song we've got. Signed autographs, made new friends, pulled out the Chuck photo album. I'm spent; off to my very own queen bed. Tomorrow, then, good people.

long drive today. rain, sun, sleep and not much in between. i had a few things to say after a long night and a fine show, when suddenly i'm watching this terrible german band cover REM from hotel tv? jesus. it's late. and i'm winding down. and here's a photo from tonight. see you where the pepper grows tomorrow...