So I was reading Sandy Carson dot com when I read about how my band’s new record is for sale. I hadn’t actually heard that it was officially for sale yet, so it was news to me. Sandy shot the photos and did all the layout and design of the record itself so I guess he had the inside information. We are all really happy with how it came out. Its on orange vinyl and is a split record with 1 side belonging to the Snake Trap and 1 belonging to Transmography. If you don’t have record player (get one) it also comes with a CD of the tracks plus bonus tracks from each band. The Trap’s bonus tracks are a few unreleased songs and 1 live one. You can order them from Australian Cattle God Records.

Should I feel weird about schelping stuff on my blog? Ha…. I think you should also buy Odyssey parts, Giant Bikes, Bicycle Union Gloves, and Fender Guitars. Oh hell, you can buy my house too!

Its been a while for me on here. I’ve been just feeling like the internet is annoying and tedious lately. No real reason that I can put my finger on, but there is this fleeting urgency that seems to emit from my computer that has been really bothering me. Some sort of “hey! hey! look at me quick before I’m gone!” kind of thing that reminds me of insecure highschool kids or something. Does anyone else ever get that feeling? I suppose its my own fault for paying too much attention to it all.

Austin-> Joplin ->Cleveland->Michigan

In the meantime I moved out of Austin. Not really sure where I’m moving to, but I don’t think its back to Texas. The Snake Trap played at the Joplin contest that just happened and I had all my stuff packed up in a moving van for the trip. After we played that show the band headed back to Austin and I headed north and would camp out every 7 or so hours of driving. I arrived in Cleveland early this week, unloaded all my stuff into storage, bought a car and hung out there for a few days. I stayed with Pat Schreader in his crazy warehouse space for a few days and explored Cleveland. There’s a fair chance I might end up living there. Now I’m over in Michigan visiting family. In a few days I’m taking my grandma and uncle on a little trip to northern Michigan, and then I’m going to take a solo trip along the north part of the country out to Montana. I keep thinking maybe I’d want to live out in Montana somewhere. I guess after that camping and exploring trip I’m headed back to Austin to play one last show since we just got our new records in. We did some real vinyl this time (but we also included a CD inside the record). Hopefully by the time I’ve completed this loop I’ll have an idea of where I want to move to and be able to head to my new home.

My mom’s dog and my two.

My home for the next month or two while wandering.

By the time I’m done with this my new car won’t be so new!

I can’t remember the last time I was this excited about a trip. 

Tomorrow morning I head to NYC to play the CMJ Festival with the Snake Trap. We have two shows up there, one on Friday and one on Saturday. Should be awesome fun to play.

After a couple days in NYC I head out to Cleveland to meet up with my bikes and friends at Rays MTB park. John Povah, Sandy Carson, Alex Perez and maybe Ron Kimler are all going to meet me there for a few days of riding. I truly think that Ray’s might well be the funnest place I have ever ridden a bike. Its makes you feel like you are inside a pinball machine or maybe riding a oversized miniature golf course. Its also one of those places that is so fun to take new people to. Kimler, Sandy and Alex have never been there so I can’t wait to show them around and see how crazy they think it is. I recommend a trip to Rays to everyone out there… it really is something unique. They even have a deal where the hotel by the airport will shuttle you to the park for free, so you don’t even need to rent a car if you fly into Cleveland for a session. 

After Ray’s Povah and I are continuing on down to Baco Jam in Florida. I still don’t have a costume for myself, but my bike’s costume is incredible. I can’t wait to post some pictures. Sandy said he’d shoot some photos for me up at Ray’s so I will post some then. 

Ok, off to finish packing… and yes, even that is fun today. Since I shipped my BMX and MTB up to Ray’s I don’t even have to pack a bike. Just one little carry on and I’m rolling.

It’s 9/11 today and I can’t help but have flashbacks to the real 9/11. The strangest thing for me was that right before 9/11 happened I was in the middle of a long cross-country 36 hour roadtrip by myself. It was on my birthday so it was 8/31. I was listening to some late night conspiracy radio show to stay awake and right after the story about giant people coming out of caves to rule the earth there was an interview with a alleged ex-CIA man who had written a book about how America would be attacked. He said that the attack would come soon and that terrorists would use planes to smash into buildings like missiles. He was trying to warn the world and the US Government. Of course at the time I didn’t even pay attention to it, but 11 days later I couldn’t believe I’d heard that. I’ve never found that book or author since, but it would probably be interesting. 

Let’s concentrate on something positive! Today is also Povah’s birthday! I don’t think the terrorists or anyone else ever took that into account. They completely ruined my friends birthday. I wonder if you kids out there can appreciate Mr. John Povah that way I and the BMX industry do? He’s one of the people that make BMX go ’round so to speak. Often behind the scene, lending a hand to helping skateparks get built (if he’s not the one building), judging contests, arguing for good and well run contests with the decision makers on the different boards of directors, changing Jay Miron’s wheels for years back in the Schwinn days, running the Etnies program, babysitting us when shit gets tough and being a honestly good friend to us all. 

Happy 9/11 Povah! 

Card is from Some E Cards… good click for a laugh.

In iTunes 8 that came out yesterday it comes with the Genius Bar feature that recommends music you might like based on a song you select. When I highlighted a Snake Trap song this is the list I got.  I was pretty stoked that it even knew what The Snake Trap was! I guess a lot of the recommendations seem to be tied to the Props Rock n Road Fools tours since Lucero, Thunderlip and Greyscale are all on there. Some of them I don’t know how they got on there, but hell, we could do worse then having a connection with our neighbors the Sword. I could have lived without being associated with Papa Roach though.. ha ha… 

We are finally going to start playing again soon. My drummer has been on warp tour all summer long and I’ve been traveling a lot too. We have a showcase booked up for CMJ festival in NYC in October so we will start practicing and working out some new songs. Good fun for me!