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!

Man, I’ve been sick for like 2 and half weeks. First one of my nasty knee cuts got infected and turned into a fever and I felt awful, then Austin’s winter pollens took their toll on me and I had gnarly allergies that kept me on the couch for a solid week. I know you’d think with all that free time I would have been keeping up on the blogging, but its was a pretty for real kind of sick. I felt completely empty and didn’t really think much beyond sleeping and trying to stay warm.

Finally feeling better now, but all of Austin’s allergen counts are at record levels and I can definitely feel it. Got out and did some BMX yesterday though and it sure was nice. Beautiful day and it felt so good to be out pedaling around. I wish I had a camera. Ran into Sergio Layos at Empire, a truck load of french dudes and about 30 other people at 9th street, and later I stopped off and rode T1- with Ian Morris, Corey Martinez, Nathan WIlliam, Alex from France, James Cox and Dave Parrick at T-1. Oh, Danny Hickerson showed up too and Joe Rich is back home from Spain. This place is just crazy this time of year. So many riders wandering in and out.

This week my cousin in Austin is getting married and so my entire family is coming down to Austin too. I think there’s like 7 of them staying with me in my little house. SXSW is coming after that and things are going to be even crazier here. The Snake Trap just got accepted into the Dickies Battle of the Band with a winner take all $10,000 purse. Not sure how that will work out, but one of the judges is Gza which should be interesting.

The Snake Trap played last night in Austin. It was a really fun show for me. We played some of our newer stuff and it felt like we were all pretty “on” and operating like a real band. Good fun and its had me happy all day. We recently recorded a few songs for a new LP that will be coming out in a month or so. I made a little video of the recording session for one of the songs. Probably not the most exciting way to watch a band play because in the studio you’re trying to hold still and make sure you get every not just right. I’m not a video maker and don’t have a good camera, so excuse the quality please. The song is still in the rough mix stage too, but you’ll get the idea. 

Rough track from The Snake Trap’s upcoming record available through Australian Cattle God Records. 

My little brother back in Michigan quietly released his second album. I didn’t really know he ever put out a first album, but you can download it for free here. I’m proud of the kid for putting in all this work and doing this all by himself. It’s quite impressive. 

So, as of 2009 I no longer ride for Etnies. To start the year of fresh I went to find some new shoes. After stopping at several stores I finally found some I wanted. Tried them on, felt good about the fit and decided to take them. After leaving the store with the shoes I was very surprised to find a team of security guards had been scrambled to stop me! Apparently the store wanted me to pay for the shoes! “Pay” for shoes?!? Are you kidding me? Have any of you ever heard of such a thing? I know what you are thinking, you’re thinking, pay? pay what? Like money? Like the stuff you use to buy electronics? Well, yes indeed, I guess its a new thing or something but shoes stores (at least here in Austin) want you to give them money for their shoes. I could understand if they wanted to take pictures of me or something… thats how things have always worked before (for the last 20 years) with Etnies and Airwalk. You just let them take your picture and then you pick out what shoes you want. Oh well… I guess its the economy. Hopefully this won’t catch on in other parts of the country because let me tell you, paying for shoes sucks! I hope you guys never have to deal with what I went through, forking over cash for shoes… ridiculous! 

I know you think it would be cool to have a drummer in your band who was also a recording engineer, but they are such perfectionists with their trained ears! They hear every little screw up you make while playing bass. 

In other news I’ve been super busy with the band recording our half of a split record that is due out in february. Recording all professional like in a studio can really be hard work. We played so much I actually got forearm pump the same way as if I had been riding for an entire day over washboard bumps. The tracks are down now and we are just working on doing the mixing/ mastering (which seems a lot like editing a video, only there’s no video to watch other then the sound waves). Good times!

This is down right embarassing. Krt Schmidt put up my section from the old Standard Happy Days video. What year is this from? At least some of it was filmed in 1991 during the year I was at college because I recognize the ledges in front of my dorm. 

Man, I’ve had the worst flu. I’m out in Los Angeles shooting some photos for Ride Magazine. Its been fun even with my nose running all over the place. I think where and what we shot I’m supposed to keep a secret but I can tell you it was very extreme. I’m also hoping I can finally land a free subscription to Ride while I’m out here, but we’ll see. Got to spend some time at Odyssey and got some new prototype products as well. Stoked! I’ll post some pictures later. I love the cool new toys!

I spent all last week sick on the couch. This has been a pretty shitty flu. I picked up a Roku set top box for Netflix. That turned out to be pretty cool. If you have a Netflix account using the Roku for unlimited access to all of Netflix’s online content is free! $99 one time price for the box is well spent I say. It just connects to your internet through wifi and anything you have on your Netflix que that is available for instant viewing pops up your TV set. Um… I think I just wrote a product review… sorry about that, I am sick.

Do I look stoked? I kind of am because I found my jewelery store in LA, but, yeah, still sick. 

Going to the Lighting Bolts Art show tomorrow night so I’ll have some pictures of that, and then headed home to continue laying on my couch until I feel better. I’m actually sitting on the couch at JIm Bauer’s house watching BBC’s Top Gear. This show is hilarious… Baz Keep is on the show… awesome. 

It’s reminded me of Ken Block’s amazing car video. I’m sure you’ve seen it, but you know it’s the most amazing online video you’ve ever seen and worth watching again! Vroooooooom!

Snake Trap plays in austin at Creekside on friday dec 12th!

Random photo of the day is my roommates cat falling off the fence! How good? She was trying to jump up and I thought I’d get an action shot, but thanks to a shit delay on my digi camera and a ill judged leap by MIss Sophia I landed this awkward snap. 

Aw hell… as long as I’m trying to fill this post how about a link Johnny Devlin sent me. Such a beautiful video from Beirut. In fact, all the candid, live videos by this French guy are very interesting and creative and worth checking out… here.

A couple weeks ago I got some early versions of Aaron Ross’ new shoe by Etnies called The Number. Lucky for me I wear the same size as Aaron so I got some of his samples. I’ve been wearing the shoes nonstop since their arrival and I seriously love them! Good job Aaron and crew with getting these shoes together. Stoked on them!

The tread is really good on pedals. I use Odyssey Trail Mix pedals with the long pins and the shoes I’ve been wearing aren’t torn up at all. They grip well and have just the right amount of sole stiffness and flex. You know, its always that fine line between pedal feel and foot protection when it comes to shoes for bikes. This one does a good job. As this is an early sample I heard something about some changes to the insole to make them even better, but I’m already impressed. 

These shoes will be available in spring of ‘09 (which usually means they hit stores in late winter after christmas sometime). Between now and then there’s plenty of time to wear them, test them and make refinements. I’m well excited for their release because I really think its one of the best shoes Etnies has put out in a while.

My bands playing tomorrow night downtown in Austin. We get to play with this awesome band from Japan called Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re.  There’s a little bit of a buzz going around town for this show… or at least in my backyard…

Oct 7 at Emo’s in Austin Tx.

Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re

Red X Red M

The Snake Trap

The Little Bicycles