GTG RECORDS

Small Houses "North"

Small Houses dropped the new album North this weekend, and pre-release reviews have said the record has songs that are “hair-raisingly beautiful, some of the vocal interplay is incredible, and the musicianship is wonderful” (Metro Times) with the overall vibe described as “ethereal, quiet and beautiful” (LansingMusicTV). For this record, mastermind Jeremy Quentin collaborated with a great roster of musicians including Chris Bathgate, Samantha Crain, and members of Frontier Ruckus among many others. The band is on a run of dates supporting the CD release that will see Small Houses (fleshed out for the live dates with a full band including GTG pal John Davey on bass guitar and a wicked drummer/ keys/ etc player named  Adam Danis) hit the Great Lakes states, the east coast, the tip of the south, and the midwest over the course of the rest of October and the beginning of November. A complete list of shows, as well as samples from the new album, can be found over at the official Small Houses website. The album will be available for sale on this site real soon.

In other news…
Some more press has been creeping in for some of the great GTG releases of the summer. Drinking Mercury‘s autumn-fresh album Orcades (did you order one yet?) was called by super hip entertainment blog Idle and the Bear “an amazing combination of different sounds and harmonies. This entire album was great.” This same fine site also reviewed Josh David and the Dream Jeans‘ Can You Believe We Landed on the Moon? describing it as “very raw and powerful. It’s rough, it’s experimental… It’s kickass.” Finally, Revue magazine did a write-up on the Narc Out the Reds 7-inch single (despite being labelled a “CD review”), declaring it “catchy rock-and-roll tunes with a lot of twists and turns” and complimenting the band for laying “down a nice, tight bed for the songs to sit on.” Nick work everybody!

The Hat Madder and Stargrazer are also both nearing completion on full-length albums – a sample of some of the new material from the former can be found in the new 3D (oh man!) video for new Hat Madder song “Mayflies,” which you can view here. Honah Lee in the meantime has revamped their website, and it’s pretty nifty. Check it out for all of your Honah Lee needs, including their many show dates throughout New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, both Virginias, and Massachusetts. Preliminary reports have the boys coming to the midwest in January, so… stay tuned.

Finally, we just got the new pressing of The Plurals Today, The Plurals Tomorrow: A Futurospective in the mail, which means we can take orders of that again. It also will soon be available all over the internet on itunes, Amazon, and all of those things (and it’s already on bandcamp) so there’s no excuses. The new pressing is just like the old pressing, except that we didn’t rush the order through a crappy company that pumps out defective CDs and doesn’t believe in customer service (*cough*KUNAKI*cough*) and we can still confidently say it is the best Plurals music out there. To further flog the dying horse The Plurals are heading on tour again at the end of October (starting on October 20th at Mac’s Bar in Lansing with Japanese noise legends Melt Banana) through the midwest, dipping into Colorado, and then jogging over to the east coast. Dates are still being posted, but the confirmed shows are listed here. GTG!

Oh yes, we have another entry in the It Takes a Village to Make Records singles series. This time around we have a new track from Frank and Earnest called “Paul 4.” It’s the fourth song Paul has written for this band, and it’s an epic, catchy, anthemic smorgasbord of a song. Download it here. This is the fifth volume of ITAV’s series, so if you haven’t been paying attention to it you need to get on board. So far Stargrazer, The Hat Madder, Narc Out the Reds, The Plurals, and Frank and Earnest (as well as plenty of sweet non GTG artists like Joshua Barton, The Playback, Cavalcade and many more) have all released exclusive new music through these singles, with more of our roster and friends slated to appear in the coming months.

Make sure to order “Orcades.”

Next up on our release schedule is the album “North” by Small Houses. Early reports are calling this the finest release yet from the Jeremy machine.

“North” release shows:
Oct. 5 – The Local Music Show (Radio) – Ann Arbor, MI
Oct. 6 – The Strutt – Kalamazoo, MI (w/ Paleo, Fiona D, and Gitis Baggs)
Oct. 7 – Scene Metrospace – Lansing, MI (w/ Paleo and Sacred Strays)
Oct. 8 – House Show – Albion, MI (w/Paleo and Reef Theory)
Oct. 9 – Dreamland Theater – Ypsilanti, MI

Stay tuned to the Small Houses website for more information.

Hope you’re having a lovely first day of autumn. If you wish to discuss the merits of the term “fall” versus “autumn” or vice versa please e-mail gtgrecords at gmail dot com.

So Drinking Mercury’s been a band for 11 years, but aside from a couple limited-run EPs and some compilation tracks they haven’t released a whole lot. That changes on September 3rd with the release of the full-length album Orcades. The band simultaneously captures their live energy and embraces studio textures on this album, resulting in a fine space-rock meets indie-folk stew with a dash of shoegaze. Pre-order the album and receive a free download of the band’s rendition of Flaming Lips’ “Five Stop Mother Superior Rain.” Do so here:

Orcades release shows:

9/1/2011 – Frankie’s (Toledo, OH) w/ The Faux Paus, The Galt Line, Miracle Vitamins
9/2/2011 – Pyramid Scheme (Grand Rapids, MI) w/ grrRopolis, Trophy, Jake Stills and the Mi Mi Mis
9/3/2011 – Mac’s Bar (Lansing, MI) w/ Nathan Kalish & the Wildfire, People Grinding Axes

Did anyone else ever read that short story August Heat by W.F. Harvey in high school? I think about it every August. And wow, what a twist at the end. Funny, though, as soon as it turned August it got cooler in Michigan. So yeah, who likes to talk about the weather?

As great of a conversation as this has been so far, I’m going to just lay out the news for the month:

Frank and Earnest Tour dates!

8/4/2011 – Castle Anthrax, Toledo OH w/ Lance Murdock, more
8/5/2011 – Annabell’s, Akron OH w/ We Know Karate, Worship This!, Shepler Church
8/6/2011 – Badlands, Syracuse NY w/ Those Ghostfuckers, Leylines
8/7/2011 – O’Briens Pub, Allston MA w/ Direct Hit!, Masked Intruder, Ridgemont, the Handsomes, Yale Massachusetts
8/8/2011 – Kung Fu Necktie, Philadelphia PA w/ Invincible, Robots and Racecars
8/10/2011 – Mill Hill Basement, Trenton NJ w/ The Divided, Jon Harkel, more
8/11/2011 – 15th House, Columbus OH w/ Stymie, more
8/12/2011 – Mac’s Bar, Lansing MI (Razorcake Magazine Benefit Show!)
8/13/2011 – Ant Hill, Kalamazoo MI w/ Seized Up, Ackley Kid, Protected Left

This is the first time Frank and Earnest has made it out to the east coast, so we have our fingers crossed that those of you residing closer to the Atlantic will show them a good time when they roll into town in Ben’s-hopefully-intact van, asking “where do bands play here?” before staggering onto (hopefully the correct) stage and somehow pulling off a blistering set of rough ‘n melodic punk stuff.

Everyone note the aforementioned Razorcake benefit on August 12th. Razorcake is an awesome magazine and it’s written up stuff about plenty of GTG and friends’ bands as well as featured writing and art from a host of cool people. It’s a non profit print magazine focused on independent music (celebrating their 10th year!) so definitely come out to this show. Frank and Earnest put this together and will perform alongside Fisherking and The Playback with some musical surprises in store from The Plurals as well. Speaking of…

Plurals dates!

8/4/2011 – Mulligan’s Pub, Grand Rapids, MI w/ Facing Winter
8/5/2011 – Park Rock (Festival), Wisconsin Rapids, WI (Plurals at 9:00 PM)
8/6/2011 – Disastr House – Artists For Artistry Fundraiser, Rockford, IL
8/12/2011 – Cairo Bar, West Chicago, IL w/ Facing Winter
8/19/2011 – House Show, Kalamazoo, IL

Yep, the midwest is gonna BURN.

Back on the east coast, Honah Lee’ stellar sophomore disc Life Won’t Let Me is beginning to earn some well deserved praise from the media giants:

“These nine songs are back-to-back-to-back hits. Urgent and rough-edged punk rock, their execution is first-rate. Many bands have been described as a wall of punk rock sound, but few have deserved it as much as Honan Lee. Innovative, intoxicating, and above all ear-catching, this is a band I wanna see and experience first hand.” – Phil @ Jersey Beat

“The melodies on this record are fucking infectious and will do anything to prevent you from evicting them from your head. Trust me, you’re stuck with these. If you’re looking for a new pop punk band to become obsessed with, I think we have you covered with Honah Lee.” – Idle @ Idle and the Bear

“Great party anthems. I can only imagine a room full of sweaty punks screaming along.” – Sean @ LansingMusicTV

“This album bounces between guitar-full rock n roll to almost NOFX like hyper punk rock, and even losing itself to more crunchy 90’s style rock… And magically (where’s Puff?) I LOVE EVERY ITTY BIT OF IT!” – Sarah @ Music She Blogged

And they ain’t just stickin’ to the studio.

Honah Lee dates!

8/5/2011 – Dub V Pub, Martinsburg, WV
8/6/2011 -Duncan’s, Frostburg, MD
8/11/2011 – John and Peter’s, New Hope, PA
8/13/2011 -Tavern on the Lake, Hightstown, NJ
8/19/2011 – Troc Balcony, Philadelphia, PA

Beyond this, August 13th Drinking Mercury and Stargrazer will be performing alongside Calliope and Gnome Village at (SCENE) Metrospace in East Lansing, MI. This is an all ages show and is also Hattie Plural’s birthday. None of these bands play out a whole lot, so you don’t want to miss this one. One week later, on August 20th, Narc Out the Reds will be opening for the flipping MEAT PUPPETS at “Crispy Fest” at White’s Bar in Saginaw, MI. Tickets for this all day bash are only $15 and a hell of an opportunity to see some bonafide legends up close whilst gettin’ yr GTG on.

Lastly, but not leastly, I must direct your attention to Jason Alarm’s Farewell Show @ Mac’s Bar in Lansing, MI on August 19th (5:00 PM, all ages). Jason Alarm are a talented and infectious band with something like four years as a band under their belts despite all members being between the ages of 19 and 21. Their farewell show will be a good time, and my disappointment in the band calling it quits is compounded by the fact that I will be unable to attend with Plurals business taking me out of town for the night, so I really hope everyone who can make it gets there. Jason Alarm is one of the casualties of the GTG roster that never was able to make the classic record they were capable of – their 2009 EP Engage is a solid listen, and the three standalone songs they’ve put out since then are even more impressive (all of these, by the way, are available at their bandcamp page), but, as anyone who’s had a band can tell you, scheduling can be a bitch and sadly a full-length from these boys just wasn’t in the cards. However, a band with so much talent and promise parting ways just means that we’ll have a few more kick ass bands around Lansing in the future, and I’m sure it won’t be too long before we’ll all be hearing some great new music from their camp. Fare thee well, beloved hoodrats.

More news will be forthcoming soon! Stick around.

tommyplural

If you haven’t been staying tuned to our friends at It Takes A Village to Make Records and their monthly 3-Way Split Singles club, you’re missing out on some great music. Well, now you can get caught up, as today is the release of volume three of the singles club, which features our very own Narc Out the Reds and Hat Madder, as well as our old friends and fellow mischief makers The Playback. For this single, members of all three bands collaborated in one marathon session to bring three exclusive brand new songs to the masses. Download it for $3, stream it for free, support the cause, check out the other singles, etc here. The future releases in this singles series are very promising, with The Plurals and Frank and Earnest (sheesh, these guys just don’t know when to shut up do they?) both scheduled to make appearances very soon alongside many other cool bands.

PS: Those of you in Lansing best be gettin’ your dancing shoes on for GTG Fest Part 2 at GTG House tonight, with the one and only Johnny Unicorn making his first local appearance in almost a year.

So tomorrow is part one of our “GTG Fest”ivities of 2011. Not to discount the awesomeness of the show or anything (believe me, the awesomeness is a caliber of awesome rarely seen by even those considered awesome) but people that can’t make the show should be given some sort of opportunity to realize that this summer we have the strongest batch yet of GTG releases. The Plurals “Futorospective,” Honah Lee “Life Won’t Let Me,” Josh David and the Dream Jeans “Can You Believe We Landed on the Moon?,” and Frank and Earnest / The Plurals “Funemployment” split 7-inch are all super fresh (with the Narc Out the Reds 7″ single coming up later in July), and many great past releases in the catalog are still available in the store as well. So for the rest of the summer we are offering a 2 for 1 deal on anything in the store. All you need to do is order 1 of the releases and in the ordering process you will have the option to “add special instructions to seller” – when you get to this option just specify which other item in the store you would like. Bam! No strings attached, extra music. Everything in the store is less than $10, so really, we’re borderline practicing bad business here (eh, not the first time… did I say that out loud?). In all deadly seriousness, if you don’t have “Rogue Notes” by The Hat Madder, “Are On the Run” by Narc Out the Reds, or “Old Francis” by Frank and Earnest, you definitely need to use this opportunity to get ’em. Curious about Drinking Mercury? Interested in one of the old bands that a couple of the Honah Lee dudes were in (Too Much Too Fast Too Soon)? Want leverage to mock The Plurals with some older releases? Go to the “GTG Catalog” button above or just click here. If you want to take advantage of the sale but don’t have a credit or debit card e-mail us at gtgrecords at gmail dot com.

That’s all for now. Looking forward to seeing everyone tomorrow!

The freedom of independent music that is! Freedom of Choice? Thank you Thomas Jefferson for drafting a plan for a nation in which a bunch of head-in-the-clouds idealists can toil away in basements, crafting sounds that they think are cool, with other people occasionally noticing. We are celebrating this freedom with a gathering on July 9th at basement414 in Lansing, Michigan, a “GTG Fest” of sorts. We weren’t able to get together our ridiculous over-the-top GTG Fest this summer, so we’re doing a relatively more low key GTG celebration that will still feature hours of a wide variety of music, refreshments, and plenty of good times. Shows at basement414 (414 Jay Street, Lansing, MI – the alley behind the Nuthouse/ The Loft, etc) are always all ages and free, however we will be “passing the hat” for the touring bands.

Bands scheduled to perform are:
The Plurals (yeah, them/us/whatever), Local Demise (punk-metal awesome from Trenton, NJ), Lightning Bugs (Grand Rapids noise-pop), Idiot Boy (ex-Karma Bat NJ altpop), Little American Champ (Lansing melodicore), MC Raymond Strife (east coast punk rapper), The Guest Stars (Lansing powerpop), NQD (that guy that used to work at QD on Foster doing some hip-hop), Drinking Mercury (out of hibernation but still sleepy space rockers), Sterratic (Jackson, MI dreamy rock), and The Hunky Newcomers (new hunky Lansing idiot punk).

We’ll be starting the show with a cookout around 4 PM, with music going into the night. Those of you of the Facebook inclination can check out the event page here. All are welcome to attend, and we will also have a big ol’ GTG and friends merch table so people can pick up all sorts of music.

Like these three brand new GTG releases! Which you can also order RIGHT NOW via paypal (and no, you don’t need a paypal account to order).

GTG049:

Life Won’t Let Me by Honah Lee

GTG050:

Can You Believe We Landed on the Moon? by Josh David and the Dream Jeans

GTG051:
Funemployment split 7-inch by Frank and Earnest and The Plurals

The best part of all this is that this is just the beginning for a full July of GTG fun. On July 15th there will be a “GTG Fest After-Party” at GTG House (message gtgrecords at gmail dot com for the address, although pretty much everyone in Lansing knows where it is by now) featuring the return of Michigan’s favorite son (now out in Seattle) Johnny Unicorn, along with Josh David and the Dream Jeans and Cavalcade. This party will be starting around 8:30, and earlier in the night of July 15th Jason Alarm are celebrating Matt Waterman’s birthday at the Loft in Lansing.

GTG052, the new 7-inch single from Narc Out the Reds will be coming into the world on July 21st at Mac’s Bar, with a performance featuring NOTR, Hat Madder, Frank and Earnest, and the Fencemen. After this Narc Out the Reds and The Hat Madder are hitting the road for some east coast dates.

There’s also rumblings of a “late-July GTG Fest” at basement414, so all of this may not even be all. August will feature Jason Alarm, The Plurals, Frank and Earnest and Drinking Mercury all hitting the road in some capacity. Holy moley!

Save these dates!

6/17/2011 – Honah Lee CD release party w/ The Plurals @ Asbury Lanes (Asbury Park, NJ)
6/18/2011 – The Plurals, Tim Hoh, Glocca Morra, The Great Explainer, Chris Pinto @ Mill Hill Basement/ Big Dave’s Birthday Bash (Trenton, NJ)
6/24/2011 – Josh David and the Dream Jeans CD release + Frank and Earnest/ Plurals 7″ release party wsg/ The Hat Madder, Infernal Names, Destroy Nate Allen @ Mac’s Bar (Lansing, MI)
6/25/2011 – Skate Park Benefit featuring Frank and Earnest, Jason Alarm, the Cartridge Family, and many more @ Myja’s Grey Wolf Inn (Grand Ledge, MI)

We’ve got great GTG activity for the month of June, with The Plurals jetting to the east coast for Honah Lee’s official CD release for their stellar new Life Won’t Let Me album on June 17th at Asbury Lanes in Asbury Park, NJ. I’m extremely excited to personally attend this release show, as Jersey has always treated GTG well and having Honah Lee among our ranks is just plain awesome.

The Plurals and Frank and Earnest have a split 7″ dropping on June 24th (the same night as… well, stay tuned), and both bands are really excited to enter the vinyl game. Both sides of this split were recorded really fast (the weekend The Plurals got home from the long west coast tour earlier this year) and there’s a sense of urgency to both sides. Dropping the needle on a GTG release feels pretty cool – and we’ll get to do it again next month as Narc Out the Reds are dropping a 7″ single in July.

Finally, June 24th is also the long-awaited release for the debut full-length from Josh David and the Dream Jeans. Aside from a couple compilation cuts and a small-run handmade demo, this is the first release from a great band that we’re happy to have among our ranks. The album Can You Believe We Landed on the Moon? stands as a great snapshot of midwest, and Lansing in particular, punk-alt-something in the second decade of this century. There are clear influence reference points – Black Flag, Misfits, early Sub Pop releases, etc – but JDDJ put a rather unique spin on hardcore punk with their start-at-100%-and-keep-pushing instrumental approach and Josh David’s nutjob-squawk vocals. The release was one big GTG family collaboration, with yours truly recording and mixing the record, Shawn Semen (ex-MK Ultra Culkin) mastering, album art by Ashley Anderson (of Drinking Mercury artwork and various GTG web design fame), and Peter Richards (Stargrazer, ITAV Records, etc) providing the layout. Come on out to Mac’s Bar on June 24th to celebrate this release, along with Frank and Earnest, Destroy Nate Allen, The Hat Madder, and Infernal Names. That Frank and Earnest/ Plurals 7″ should be hanging out too.

The rest of the summer looks just as sweet, with Narc Out the Reds dropping their 7″ on July 21, a posthumous CD release from defunct Lansing noisemakers Edible Intention, and, finally, Drinking Mercury’s full-length album coming in the late summer. Excellent.

tommyplural

The Plurals are officially releasing the new album “Futurospective” this Saturday, May 21st, at Mac’s Bar in Lansing, Michigan. We’ve already gotten a few advance reviews of the new record and reception has been great:

“The music comes at you with a mess of energy almost like it’s trying to kick you into consciousness and force you to join in a punk-infused dance party. And you can’t say no.” – Sarah @ Music She Blogged

“The Plurals do everything well, but above anything else, they do a great job of taking a bunch of my favorite traditional sounds and blending them together into this ridiculously strange sound all of their own. Five stars. Buy it when it comes out.” – Bear @ Idle and the Bear

“They simply play rock music, styles and conventions and trends be damned. Futurospective is the record I’ve been waiting for them to make, and it’s been a long time coming. It’s their Zen Arcade, their Double Nickels. The record where they truly put to disc what we’ve always seen them do live. Futurospective is the past and the future all in one place, with a voice that is undeniably their own. No hype, no bandwagon-jumping, no bullshit. Album of the year, hands down.” – Ryan @ Lexington Music Press

Thanks to these reviewers, and our friends at Raptor’s Delight PR for getting these discs out to these folks. To release the record The Plurals are doing a string of shows with Honah Lee this weekend: Thursday 5/19 at Frankie’s (Toledo, OH), Friday 5/20 at Mulligan’s (Grand Rapids, MI), and the official release party at Mac’s Bar (Lansing, MI) on 5/21 (with GTG dudes The Hat Madder rounding out the show with their first local appearance with their new lineup). If you can come to any or all of these shows they’ll be a great time, guaranteed.

Also, Punknews.org had this to say about Narc Out the Reds’ “…Are on the Run” EP recently:

“The songs essentially bear slightly grungy, occasionally heavier parts as each proceeds, and despite the band’s possible influences they seem to largely abandon verse/chorus structure, with a handful of unpredictable stop-starts along the way. The guitars are dynamic, and rock well. Raspy, smeared vocals drag emphatically across the pauses; the band do away with any sort of wistfulness, instead choosing a noisier pop slant to otherwise riffy rock fare. An almost reckless approach to an older, familiar style, mixing it all up well.” Brian @ punknews.org

What a good time to be in the gang.

Oh wow I haven’t kept up with this very well at all. As I stated before I will go into detail with a more comprehensive journal thing later, but, here goes with a quick recap. I’m writing from Billings, Montana where The Plurals and The Anchor are splitting a hotel room (shh, don’t tell) on a shared off night.
4/6 – Drove from Denver to Albuquerque. Played at a kinda strange hookah lounge called The Orchid Chamber. Probably the weakest show of the tour, but still not bad. Met up with Jimmy from one of the local bands and crashed at his place.
4/7 – Hung out at Jimmy’s for probably too long. Drove to Tucson eventually and met up with Cameron Combs, great dude and one of the organizers of Way Out West Fest.
4/8 – Met Billy Brooks, the other main organizer of WOW Fest, as well as Logan Greene, friggin cool Tuscon dude. Spent the night watching bands at Way Out West Fest. Highlights included Logan Greene and The Bricks, Languas Largas, The Pillowfights, American Lies, and The Anchor. Crashed with Cameron (and his super cool GF Erica) again.
4/9 – WOW Fest continues. Highlights included Shang A Lang, Rumspringer, Something Fierce, Tiltwheel, Discos, UltraMaroon, Shark Pants and… yeah, lots of good music. We played a super fun set and met more cool people, including supercool southern California promoter Party Marty. Testing their patience, we once again crashed with Cameron and Erica.
4/10 – Last day of WOW Fest, with great sets from Dr. Dinosaur, Jason Kutchman, New York Taxi, Gashcat, and International Dipshits. At about 7 PM Dickie from Shark Pant/ Languas Largas/ UltraMaroon/ etc asked us if we wanted to play another show that night at a local club called The Red Room. Totally sweet pick-up show at a cool venue with cool people all around. Very nice. Somehow we convinced Cameron and Erica that we were still cool and crashed there again.
4/11 – Over staying our welcome, I broke Cameron and Erica’s shower curtain, so we took them out for lunch (Rocco’s Pizza!). Drove to Phoenix, met up with our old friend Ahmad, played an odd but fun show at The Rogue Bar and then crashed at Ahmad’s.
4/12 – Had an off day in southern California, hanging out with Party Marty, The Anchor, and the Muy Athentico Records crew (including but not limited to Kyle, Andy, and Mono). Watched The Anchor play at Romano’s in Riverside, CA.
4/13 – Spent what felt like the entire day driving across Los Angeles to get to San Pedro, CA. Hung out with Black Sparrow Press and then played a fun show at Harold’s with BSP, Baby J, and Images. My amp stopped working, but, oh well. Partied.
4/14 – Went kayaking with our friend Eva in the San Pedro harbor. Saw sea lions. Hung out with BSP some more before heading back to Riverside to play at Romano’s. Played a fun show with American Lies, Summer Vacation, and Bonsai.
4/15 – Hung out in Riverside for Andy from Turkish Techno’s birthday. Marty, Mono, Kyle, Andy, Miski, Sasha, Ariel, Dustin, other Hattie, and everyone in Riverside rules. Except that Valerie girl that tried to get me to smoke heroin with her, but, hey, whatever.
4/16 – Discovered that California is a really big state and In and Out Burger is tasty. Got to San Jose to play an awesome show in this dude Eric’s garage. Danielle from The Pillowfights put the show on and she and her band are awesome. This cool dude Sim got us on a late show at a bar that had no personality called Broncos, which was a lot of fun, until they told us to turn down, but, eh. Crashed at Danielle’s. I broke her roommate Mander’s CD player within seconds of walking in the door. Sorry Mander.
4/17 – Hung out with Danielle in San Jose. Got the best burrito of the tour, and then saw a cool house show with some great bands, including Bad Dream from Brooklyn and a bunch of awesome bands that I don’t rememer the names of.
4/18 – Departed San Jose (thanks Danielle!) then had a fun show in Sacramento, CA, care of cool punk dude Twitch Angry. Made the perhaps less-than-wise decision to drive to Kings Beach, CA after the show, with a semi terrifying drive through the Sierra Nevada mountains. Met up with Brett McDowell, a beloved GTG OG!
4/19 – Beautiful day on Lake Tahoe with Brett. Fun house show at Brett’s with Brett and a cool guy named Forrest.
4/20 – Really long drive to Portland, OR. Good show at a bar called The Know (thanks Amai and Dave). Crashed with cool dude Greg from the band Middle Ages.
4/21 – Wandered around Portland and then drove to Seattle and met up with Johnny Unicorn and his lovely girlfriend Naomi. Naomi made enchiladas that were like an oasis.
4/22 – Really fun house show at The Tiger House with Johnny Unicorn (and his Universe) and Horace Pickett. Great times.
4/23 – After driving all day, arrived at the ZACC Gallery in Missoula, MT. Played with The Anchor, which is blast, as well as great locals City O City and Hangover Kings. Marty Hill is a great promoter. Crashed with Andrea from City O City.
4/24 – Got invited to an afternoon brunch thing in Missoula and hung out with locals and The Anchor. Good stuff! Drove to Billings, MT, where I now write.

We got Rapid City, SD tomorrow (w/ The Anchor!), Minneapolis on Tuesday, and Chicago on Wednesday. Michigan awaits! It will be strange to be home, but I do miss Lansing and all of our friends.
Uh, Happy Easter?

tommyplural