Shit!

I made a twitter....
http://twitter.com/awaketoanalarm

Essentially its for random things that piss me off in the moment
Update your RSS feeds....NOW!

-Chris

This is that automatic I stay fresh like I'm wrapped in plastic

So, I downloaded the new Common record (thus the title of this blog) and I have to say that I like it WAY more than the new Kanye record, which as I stated earlier, blows big nuts.

I also got the new Thrice DVD, which is fucking awesome. Its not like their other DVD which has interviews and stuff like that. It's just a live set with a completely awesome set list. Combining songs all the way back to Illusion of Safety with mixes of Artist in the Ambulance and various songs from the Alchemy Index.

I also finally put the scrobbler for Last.Fm on my Mac, since my account was looking pretty sad and had read Fall Out Boy for several months now. It now should read Common and Thrice. Hooray!

Anyway, moving on to less nerdy things...

I've had this rental car for over a week now. I guess its going to take three weeks for my car to get done with a bill of like 4,500 bucks. Which is steep. I still haven't heard from the insurance company as to whose problem this is, but I guess that makes it not mine?

I've never had a rental car before, but they are pretty ridiculous. Like this car is a Kia Rio and it's a huge piece. Of course, I had no say in what car I was going to get. This one was in the price range of the insurance, therefore, that's what they give me. It's the one of the oddest pieces of machinery I've ever come across. It doesn't have power windows, power locks or power mirrors. It does, on the other hand, have satellite radio, auxiliary out put (for iPods) and a USB port, which doesn't like my iPhone or iPod, so essentially is useless. The conversation literally went like this with the gentleman from Enterprise:

"Well we have the Kia Rio, which is an 09 and doesn't have a lot of miles on it"

"Looks like a piece"

"Well it's got satellite radio"

And it does, but everything else on it is very much manual. I have to suck it up because I'll have this car till the week of Christmas. Although it does drive like a charm. It took a bit to get used to the steering and brakes and what nots, but eventually everything was alright.

Speaking of Christmas, its utterly ridiculous that Christmas is 2 weeks. Better do some shopping? Yeah, I better.

I'm also the only person I know that wants everything spoiled. I make people tell me the twists and endings in movies. Like you know when you have that conversation where the other person starts telling you the movie and then says, "Well, are you gonna see it?" or "Do you want me to tell you anymore?" And then most people (unless it's a terrible movie anyway) are like no don't tell me I'll see it. I'm like, "Fuck tell me what happens. I'll see it anyway.)

So, I made Eileen tell me what she is getting me for xmas because I'm a jerk like that. In fact, I drove her to go get it. Needless to say, I'm getting a new tattoo for xmas. And I've already decided what I'm going to get. It's going to be a sweet looking Sailor Jerry tattoo on the inside of my left arm (where I'm slowly but surely building my sleeve [length has yet to be determined]).

Then there is New Years, which is going to be different this year (for me at least). I'm going to be spending it with Eileen and her family at her cousin's wedding. They are getting married on New Years Eve or at Midnight or something like that. Who knows? Probably Eileen. Anyway, its an excuse for me to drink at an open bar for New Years. I love weddings though. I'm pretty good when it comes to cutting up a rug, so I'm excited to break loose a little bit.

On a different note...

Recording (the little that I've done) has been going extremely well.

Dane (pictured here making a silly face) did all the work on Sunday. Well I guess George (or engineer) did a bunch too. Josh, Dave, Emily and I pretty much sat around and watched Dane get good and sweaty while he worked out all the drum parts for the songs, but he did an incredible job and George mixed them a bit and sent them to us and they sound great, so we are really looking forward to finishing it up this weekend. It will, on the other hand, be a lot more work for me this time and much more relaxation on Dane's part.

We are really excited about finishing it and combining it with The Nominees Are's stuff and really working hard at getting it released and a lot of press behind it. I got a hold of AP this week and we are taking out ad space in March (I think), which is pretty exciting to actually get in AP. You don't have to be a negative nancy about it I realize that they put whoever will pay them in the magazine. It's still neat...

We have, on the other hand, been doing this hilarious video blogs lately. I don't say a lot in them, but they are still rather entertaining and very short so you should check them out: here. The blogs are to keep our fans, which evidentially we have, in the loop about how awesome we are.

Well that's about it for now. Check back later maybe more cool stuff?

-Chris

Happy Birthday To Me!

Well at the insistence of my wonderful girlfriend I'm writing a blog about my fantastic birthday celebration.

Normally, I don't really care all that much about my birthday. It just seems like another day of the year that goes by and then I turn a different age without anything really all that special attached to it. But this year seemed pretty special or at least Eileen made it pretty special. Don't get me wrong I've had a blast for past birthdays, especially my 21st...yikes!

First, she gave me presents on everyday leading up to my birthday or rather everyday that she saw me. Most of which included candy and monster, but also notes and leaves. It's definitely the thought that counts and that was very sweet. Then because she wouldn't be able to see me on my actual birthday we had a birthday celebration at my apartment on the Wednesday before hand. Unfortunately, that included my assholes roommates eating all my birthday chili and birthday brownies...

ANYWHO...

Eileen came over to my apartment and made us chili, which was unbelievably delicious by the way, and then she gave me my actual birthday presents which were: a awesome t-shirt that had a Four Year Strong (band) lyric on it. She, of course, doesn't like how it turned out, but I thought it was awesome, also a three pound bag of gummy bears (the German ones that are better than anything other ones), and a gift card to Urban Outfitters so I can try and be more of a hipster than I am now... She decorated the apartment with balloons and banners that read "Chris' Birthday Celebration." Then like a sweet heart took the family pictures we have been waiting to take of Rich, Dave, and myself. Speaking of which we need addresses of people so that we can send you our holiday cards.

Eileen made my birthday or pre-birthday very special and for that I thank her very much.

Then on Saturday we had a show in Dekalb, which wasn't one of the greatest venues we played at, but the promoter was really nice and gave us more than our fair share of door which was really awesome. After the show was the really awesome part. We went over to friends of ours James, Bryan, and Dan (the guys from The Nominees Are) house and we played a sort of acoustic set at their party, which was a fucking blast. We also played The Nominees Are song that we are recording "Cure For the Common Crush" and James (their lead singer) sang for it. We had a really awesome time there. We started our set at midnight and everyone in the room toasted to Josh and me for our birthday. Then The Nominees Are played their set and included a handful of Alkaline Trio songs and Fall Out Boy songs, which got the whole room jumping and singing. All in all, it was a really awesome experience and fun time.

It was a lot of fun to hang out with those guys again and really get to talk to them a bit more about the split that we are doing with them, which we are all ridiculously stoked for. We just have a lot of big ideas for it. We go into the studio the first weekend in December at Gravity with George Balogi, who worked on "Sufferer and The Witness" and with some friends of ours in Love Me Electric. They highly recommended him to us as well.

The Nominees Are going into the Lucky Boys Confusion studio the first couple weeks in January. It'll be really awesome to use both those producers as names attached to this record, as well as, James told us we could use whatever quote we want to from the lead singer of Armor For Sleep. All really beneficially things when trying to get good press on the record to really get our name out there.

Speaking of press on this record, it looks like this will be the first release on Rockasaurus Records. Hopefully you'll be hearing more from that end of stuff soon. I have a meeting with Jim and Anthony at Minty Fresh to help us get all the legal stuff set up. It's really nice to have people to help us out with is since we are complete noobs. I know a bit about the contracts, but not enough to be totally set and not screw over people or get screwed over.

We have HUGE plans for the release show of this record. It looks like we'll have LBC as our huge band attached and it'll probably at the Metro too. All those things we are working out the details for.

Then tour this summer to support the record, which is tentatively titled "Roller Rinks and Stiff Drinks," which basically is the complete sum of the first night we met The Nominees Are at Crystal Wheels. After the show we went and drank till 7am. Awesome.

We are just so excited to work with these guys because they are just really cool and fun guys. Most importantly, they love music and just hanging out and having fun and that's all we are interested in having a good time. It's just really refreshing to be working with guys that are having fun with what they love doing and that in turn makes the whole experience a blast. It's going to be awesome sharing a studio, record, and tour with these guys.

"Putting the punk back in pop"

ALSO

I'm listening to the new Kanye record right now and honestly...it blows. There's not as much hip-hop in this record its more of an R&B record and if I really wanted to listen to that I would listen to someone that has a good voice like John Legend (and if you're interested check out "Once Again" solid record). But people fell in love with Kanye after Gold Digger, which with the help of Jaime Foxx (who is also putting a new record...hilarious) was a really awesome HIP HOP track. Then "Graduation" came out and made Kanye a fucking staple in the hip-hop pop world and I honestly think this record is going to hurt him in the frat boy market. It'll sky rocket in the R&B category probably, but I don't think frat guys, before they ruffie up the first girl of the night, aren't really going to put on "Streetlights" to get their blood flowing from the steroids like "Stronger" did.

There will probably be the initial push that people pick up the record because Kanye put out a new record and they heard "Love Lockdown," so they bought it. After that I think they'll really see the sales dip and then we'll probably hear Kanye on the news whining about people not listening to him because he's a real big baby like that. That's ok though, he'll be on every other hip hop/R&B female singer/rappers records because people will still think he's cool.

I just heard the lyric "You think your shit don't stink, but you are Mrs. Pee You"

Alright I have to go to bed, because unlike Dave whos a total asshole I have to work tomorrow.

Fuck you boners I'm out.

-Chris

Trying to stay occupied

So today I brought my laptop with me to work because I wanted to keep working on trying to get Left For Dead (a sweet zombie survival game) Demo working on the windows side of my mac. So I'm impatiently waiting for the drivers to download (long story; don't ask), I decided that I would write a blog.

I've started work at the Metro, which has been really sweet, but sometimes a little slow (note: I'm writing a blog and downloading a video game). Work at Direction is getting tedious and boring, but it barely pays the bills so I guess I'll keep working there. Until maybe I find something that pays me more money because it seems like everyone is getting jobs that's making them more money. It totally goes to show that if you work somewhere you want to work (Metro) you don't get paid dick for it, but if you work some corporate job like Josh (Chase) you get paid a lot of money. Also Carly is now a manager at Hot Topic making WAY more than I do, so she better pull her fucking weight and get us an in-store there....

Last Thursday Dave, Rich, Lily, Eric Wilson (I really want to call him Brian Wilson....fuck it). Last Thursday Dave, Rich, Lily, BRIAN Wilson, Josh and I all went to what's called the Most Interesting Show In The World. Which was basically a side show. There were a lot of freaks there. Needless to say it was insane and hilarious all rolled in one. I could go into a lengthy description about them, but instead I'll give you their names and you can youtube them, they all have videos, in order of most to least awesome.

1. Lilia Stepanova (who is hot a twists her self in a bunch of ways)
2. Kenichi (awesome dancer guy)
3. Leonid The Magnificent (you wouldn't believe me if I told you)
4. Mark Faje (balanced a running lawn mower on his chin)
5. Johnny Fayva (hilarious)

There were other acts, but not nearly as cool. We got in for free because....ya know I know a guy that got me some tickets...no big deal...

Anyway, the night of this show I was helping at the Metro set up and I got in a car accident. Don't worry I'm fine (that's pretty much for Jenna because I know the rest of you don't really care). I was pulling through an intersection, long story short, a woman barreled though and t-boned me. My car still moves, but the passenger side doors, front and back, don't open. Hopefully, I can get it fixed soon if my brother ever calls the insurance company like he was supposed to do last Friday...

Here is where I was going to go into a long winded rant about how car accidents are the silliest thing in the world due to the other person always getting pissed at you for their fault while they have two little kids in the car and clearly are teaching them that it's OK to swear and blame other people for your problems. Also how insurance is the biggest fucking joke in the world. You pay mounds and mounds of money to get your car fixed when it needs to be, but they still make you pay a deductable when you do get it fixed. BUT I won't rant about that...

The American Autumn is going really well. We have a show this Saturday at Just for Fun in McHenry with a couple other really cool bands that seem to have some pull, so hopefully that will go well have be lots of fun at the same time. We are currently trying to get recording figured out. Due to Atlas not returning emails and Gravity giving us a bugets thats...well way over budget, we are currently shopping studios to get quotes. We are all extremely anxious to get new stuff up and done with so we can release this split, but as usual, it's taking much much longer than anticipated.

Also my birthday is coming up....
"Hey just wanted to let you know that my birthday is coming up"

"Hey just wanted to let you know I didn't get you anything"

My loving and wonderful girlfriend has been giving me little gifts nearly every day until my birthday comes where she gives me my real present? Its mostly candy and some other neat stuff, but I haven't been short of bulls-eyes lately (and fuck off to the people that say they don't like bulls-eyes).

I think thats as much of an update as you are going to get. I still have 12 min to go for this download, but I supposed I should get some work done. Or at least continue to drink Dr. Pepper out of this coffee mug (it gives me cred because it sort of looks like coffee).

"Why is your coffee carbina..."
"So's your face"

-Chris

YES LESS THAN A MONTH!

Two days before another month has gone by since I've written a post. VICTORY!

Not to much has happened since last month. The bands going really well. We are starting to work on setting up a benefit show for Rock for Kids. It's slow starting, but it should be pick up soon.

Also I got a new job. Well ANOTHER job. I'm still working at Direction, but now I also work for the Metro. I'm the Street Team Manager, which basically means I'm in charge of what I do at Direction. So that's cool. But getting a new job has made me look at all my past jobs and realize that not only have I had A LOT of jobs, but some really awesome ones. So I decided that I wanted to reminisce about passed jobs.

Starting with my first EVER job, which was working at Peter's Bakery in Cary. I started off working there as the dishwasher and then after awhile I started opening up the store at 5 am on Saturdays. Since it was before I had a car I used to walk there at 4:30 in the morning and so many mornings I would get pulled over by a cop asking me what I was doing. But aside from Saturdays I would work there after school everyday. I had a blast there, especially once I started learning how to decorate cakes with some really awesome people. The owners Phil and Pam were really great to me. I worked there for like 2 years.

After the Bakery I made the unfortunate jump to Chuck E. Cheese. Although I say unfortunate I had a blast there. I met some really awesome people that I'm still friends with today. I started off as a Cashier there as everyone does. And then went to birthday parties to which i then became the Birthday Coordinator, which basically meant I ran all the birthday parties or at least the logistics of them. I did have a blast there because I was really good friends with the managers and I was sort of a manager myself, so I mostly dicked around and ate free pizza.

From CEC I went to Office Max, which was a lot of fun. I started off there as cashier there as well, but eventually moved to floor then I moved to the Logistics Team, which meant that I would wake up and be at OMAX by 5am and we would unload pallets of merchandise and put them out on the shelf. We used to work from 5am to 9am and then we would play cards for 2 hours get paid for it then dick around till 1 and leave. It was a blast. I also met a lot of cool people there to namely Big Sexy and Jeremy.

While I was at Office Max I also worked at my neighbors Engineering company where I basically just helped him using a CAD program to draft up retaining walls. It was pretty boring. I didn't work there very long at ALL. From OMAX I went to Allstate.

Basically my job at Allstate was to use markers to color pieces of paper. It was pretty ridiculous, but they paid me like 12 bucks an hour. I was supposed to be there from 7:30am to 5pm. FUCK THAT. Right? I would get there at 8 or 9 and leave at like 3, but still get paid for the full day. Don't ask me how. Then I got fired from there. Haha.

After leaving, voluntarily of course, from Allstate. I worked at Borders for awhile. Where I started out as a cashier went to floor then went to logistics there too. Same path really as OMAX. I had a lot of fun there also met a lot of cool people. Mostly a lot of cool older woman, who are still in love with me ;). I was there for awhile too. I took A LOT of CDs from there.

From Borders I was an Ice Cream man. Yup slinging cream all summer. Which, I don't want to say was fun, but it wasn't bad. Most of the time Mills, Eric and I would just sit at Hooters and drink all day. Pretty ok. I got fat because I ate A LOT of ice cream.

After the summer was over I needed another job, so I worked at Apple in Oak Brook. Apple was one of the coolest places I've ever worked. There was just such awesome employees there and really awesome customers. Just very loyal people that WANT to learn more and WANT the product. Every where else I worked it's like the employee is inconveniencing the people that are there shopping. But I didn't work at Apple very long unfortunately I was living up on the North side of Chicago and the drive to Oak Brook was RIDICULOUSLY long. A 8 hour day at work would turn into a 12 hour day because of the drive. It was only a 30 min drive, but add traffic it became 2 hours each way. Couldn't do it anymore.

After Apple I started working at Minty Fresh Records, which probably beats out Apple for coolest job. I just learned so much about the industry there and Jim and Anthony were such great guys that were working and are working incredibly hard to stay afloat in these gray times in the industry. I just learned so much from them and what I learned beats out ANYTHING that I would have gotten paid from them.

After MF, I went into a long unemployment. Started writing for Wonka Vision magazine just writing reviews for them, which is just a great way to get a bunch of free cds except for stealing them from borders.

Which brings us to today where I work at Direction Tour Marketing and Promotions and now the Metro, although I don't start till next week.

My resume is ridiculously long. Filled with silly things, but I've had a huge spectrum of jobs, but I've benefited in one way or another from everything that I've done and I have TONS of stories. And what's life unless you have stories?

Also tonight I'm going to see Four Year Strong. Fuck you boners.

-Chris

Another Month has come and gone.

Honestly, I'm not trying to write blogs once a month, but every time I get an itch to write one it seems as though a month has gone by.

Here's the hard part trying to remember all the stuff that happened in a month since my last post and right now I'm pretty distracted by the temperature drop. We'll work backwards starting from today. Come on everyone!

This past weekend was a crazy weekend filled to the brim with family related activities. Eileen and I went up to see my sister in Wisconsin (I know I know Wisconsin I cringe to, but I had to because she lives up there). We got up there Saturday afternoonish and went immediately to someone's 1st birthday. I earlier compared it to going to a party where your friend is the only one that knows anyone there and while they are off giving high-fives and telling jokes with people you've never seen before; you stand awkwardly clinging to your beer hoping no one asks if you paid for it. BUT there was free tacos, so we had a pretty good time.

Post tacos, we went back to my sisters house to play with my UNBELIEVABLY adorable niece Eva and brother and law Sam. Although Sam's not much fun to play with, you just have to keep throwing the ball out in the yard and he's pretty entertained. We watch the movie The Game Plan, which has the Rock in it. That man is enormous. Later that night we met up with my cousins Michael and Adam at Sam's bands show (Blue Comma Seriously.....SURIOUSLY). I hadn't seen Adam in a couple of years, so it was good to see him and Mike is coming down to Chi-City for The Hold Steady in Nov. Rock.

Sunday got woken up by Eva had pancakes then shimmied on to Burlington to meet Eileen's grandma and aunt. Who are both incredibly nice and hilarious. Later to discover, that I've been in Burlington several times before for other things that aren't Boy Scout related....

From Burlington to Tom and Deanna's to say hi then to Mom and Dad's to have dinner with the fam. Then back to Eileen's place for Entourage. Guh! It was a long weekend, but extremely fun.

Still working backwards...

Work is going well. I'm still at Direction, so there isn't much really to tell there.

BAND SLEEPOVER!

We had one and it was awesomely not gay...We had pie and candy and bowling and wii fit and pizza. MAN IT WAS AWESOME!!! Sleepovers are always so much fun because its like josh, Dave and I are 6 and Emily and Dane are our parents and we push and knock stuff over in the store and they get embaressed because they are supposed to be controling us. Then other people in the store scoff at them like "Learn to parent your kids..." Then Dane yells at us, "You guys!"

Unfortunately, we had the sleep over because we didn't go into the studio, which is what we originally planned on doing. Its sort of sad because we were really hoping to have a finished product by now, but due to some unforeseen events Matt Allison couldn't be there that weekend, so we had to reschedule.

On another band related note. We are doing this EP as a split with a band called The Nominees Are. Who are really awesome guys and we are excited to work with them. We are each doing 3 originals and then each covering one of the other bands songs. They are doing "Doctor Doctor" and we are doing a song called "The Cure for the Common Crush." Really rad song.

Then we have a show this Saturday at Clearwater in West Dundee, which you should totally come to. I mean it's not like I haven't come up there 3 times to see your band or anything....

We also had Shenanigans weekend, which was....fun. Rich let Eileen and her friends into his bar for a night. Then we had Dave and Chris get super drunk and talk about existentialism till 6 am...night.

I think that's about it for September. October should be a fun month.

I realize this a long post. Hopefully you made it all the way down here. If not, FUCK YOU. (<-----only swear in this post) Also check out Dave's new site Team Hamster Hat, which I will hopefully have something written up on soon. I already have an idea for my first article. Mwhaha.... -Later Boners... Chris

Rant

So the other day I was walking around Wicker Park and I decided that I neither have the patience for OR am fashion forward enough to be down there. When I say I don't have the patience for I mean the people down there annoy me. Not only the hippies mind you, because lord knows I fucking HATE hippies, but these hipster kids that all walked out of this cloning machine one at a time.

Here's a checklist of things you NEED to wear if you are going to be at the 6 corners:

Really Tight Pants

Arbitrarily Placed Tattoos

Deep-V Neck Shirts

A terrible hair cut disguised as fashionable ie. fashion mullet

A fixed geared bike

Black rimmed glasses of any shape


Now I realize that I can check a few of these boxes, but that sort of makes it worse. I'm being scoffed at by these piece of shit dickheads for being a half a hispter. Its not my fault I was born like this; there really is NO need to be condescending.

Part Two of "Rant" (not the Palahniuk book)

We played a show this Friday, which should have been good, but was terrible due to things outside our control. I'm not hear to rant about the hippies that were at the show...I've comed to terms with that. What I will rant about on the other hand is the bands at these shows.

We played with this band called Holding Mercury. Whom, were actually pretty good, BUT didn't bring any one to the show (fans or otherwise). Also while on stage they proceeded to tell everyone that one of their songs, that they were about to play, was on a frequent rotation on Q101. And here's where I get pissed...

I'm EXTREMELY sick of playing with bands that have this huge internet presence or "name drop," so to speak, about being on Q101 and are constantly out drawn by us. Every time we play with a band that we've heard of or seem to be getting bigger we out draw. And who the fuck are we? Just a band that gets kids to shows. So we bust our asses doing our part having people for these pretentious pricks to play in front of and instead of doing their part they leech off of bands like us. It's pathetic and I'm sick of it. Granted we, of course, try to canabalize other bands fan base; that's just how it works. Although, when we do it we actually bring fans of our own. These bands that are nothing but dead weight in this sea of over-polluted watered down scene of shitty harmonies and crappy hooks hurt everyone else more than they help.

Moral of the story is FUCK bands that show up to shows with out trying to draw anybody and PROPS to bands that do their part and help out. Sad reality is that the assholes that have a presence or name drop end up getting paid more on bills than we do because promoters are trying to suck up to the bands that they think are going to draw when they come back and play. The end of the night rolls around and we drew 70 people out of 160 and only get paid 70bucks on 6 dollars a head. REALLY shitty.

Quick side rant:

To all the assholes in other bands that walk out of the show to go hang out in front of the building with your ugly girlfriends and best friends to pathetic or worthless to be in bands of their own so they follow you around hoping for a blowjob from one of the girls that seems remotely interested in the disgusting calamitous shit you call music. FUCK YOU. Its bad enough that we had to listen to your music and you littered the show with your pock marked unsightly girlfriends, who typically like our music better (pst they're lying to you when they tell you they like that "new" song that you wrote about them), but to walk out on the other bands that more than likely out drew you and were polite enough to listen to you. Fuck you in an uncomfortable place (like the back of a Volkswagen).

I need sleep. That's my rant for now.

-Chris

p.s. To all family members that started reading my blog:

Hello. I'm sorry if what you read is extremely vulgar and most of the time wildly inappropriate. It's the angry part in side of me that hates hippies, republicans, neo-christians, mormans, "tech support" from India...., bros, tools, etc. Long story short I'm glad you found your way here and hopefully at least what I write about gives you a chuckle even if you don't agree with it.

p.p.s. Hey Eileen. Heart You <3 ;)

It's been like a month

Wow. I can't believe it's been a month since I've posted anything. I'd say I was busy, but then I'd be lying to all my fans, of which evidentially there are a lot of. Oh online world what have you done since I've been gone?

I'm trying to think of everything that's happened in the past month. Let's try and list:

1. Got robbed (identity stolen)
2. Moved back to Chicago
3. Got a new job
4. Band stuff (lots of it)
5. Not gotten enough sleep
6. Saw RXB

I feel like there are a lot more things, but I can't quite think of them now. I'll start with the one thing that's not on the list, but is pretty important.

I've gotten an awesome girlfriend. As some of you have undoubtedly met her already and for those that know her as "myspace girl," I've been hanging out with Eileen (not asian) a lot. Here's a good example of why I missed having a girlfriend and why Eileen is awesome. Last night I slept at Eileen's house and this morning she woke me up to get ready for work and made me pancakes. How awesome is that? Really fucking awesome. ALSO, last week her, Dave, and I went and saw the Rx Bandits. Guess who bought the tickets for me to cheer me up...Eileen. She's baked me cookies and brownies. I honestly could dedicate one whole post to all of the awesome things that she's done for me. She's rad. Fuck you boners for not having an Eileen.

Moving on...

1. I got my identity stolen. In case you were wondering the equation goes like this:

IDENTITY THEFT = NOT COOL MAN, NOT COOL....

Some hooligans in New Jersey and New York took all my money. Which of course, happened less than a week before I moved into my apartment. Needless to say JPMorgan Chase can blow an ENORMOUSLY sweaty cock that burns your nostrils like ammonia. Fuck, skip smelling when the cock finally blows they swallow ammonia. Enjoy.

(Notice that small segway)

2. I moved into an new apartment with Rich and Dave and although I haven't been home much to enjoy it, its fucking awesome. I'm actually currently sitting on my front porch (I designate which porch because believe it or not I have two porches one front and one back) writing this blog while it rains that's how awesome it is. Compare your lives to mine and crumble. We live just north of Irving Park off of Sheridan. The HC (HC=holy grail of shitty bars...Holiday Club. HC REPRESENT!) is a stones throw away. Honestly, I mean its right there....

3. I got a new job. It's pretty rad I work for a tour marketing and promotion company called Direction. Today was day two, so I haven't done a whole lot, but it's weird a. getting a paycheck and b. having to go to work. As I start doing work I'll update more. As far as the background of the company goes...it goes a little something like this (cue music):

The company was started by Micah (my boss) and Joe Shannahan (owner and proprietor of Metro Chicago http://www.metrochicago.com/history/). They started Direction together to promote shows for the Metro nine years ago. Up until a little while ago Direction's offices were held in the upstairs of the Metro (god damn it do I wish I had started working there then). Eventually Micah bought out Joe's share of the company and here we are today.

From Metro to Music...

4. So there has been A LOT of stuff going on with the band as of late. We had a huge show at Clearwater. Since then we have had I think only one show. We played at Xtreme Wheels in Crystal Lake, which was fun despite all the shit that fell apart during the show (mostly my gear and the PA). We met some really rad guys from The Nominees Are. We played the show then went to Fin McCools (not by choice) then stayed up till like 7am by a campfire playing songs, drinking beer then going to IHOP. Pretty awesome. I fell asleep in IHOP and as to be expected Dave and Josh stacked salt and pepper shakers on me.

Also band related we got shirts. Which despite being like 10 feet down the hall from where I'm at right now I haven't seen them, but word is that they are pretty awesome. You should buy a shirt! Endorse The American Autumn or pugs by purchasing a TAA shirt. It's crazy to have shirts....I'd elaborate on how crazy more, but honestly...I'm fucking tired.

5. As I said...I'm fucking tired. I feel like I haven't been getting enough sleep lately. Of course by feeling I mean I KNOW I haven't been getting enough sleep lately.

6. RXB show was fucking incredible. Everytime I see them it's a religious experience. Matt Embree....mmmm Matt Embree. And getting to share the experience with Eileen was incredible.

I really can't think of anything more to blog about. I've been thinking about starting a "rant" blog. Like this blog is my personal blog it tells of my joys of life, but I feel like I want to pick an article out of the news paper 3 times a week and blog about it. Then have people post comments on it for discussion. This comes at a time when Dave is starting a webcomic and I want a way to be funny and make snide remarks about culture, but less visually more rhetorically. Although I have a tough enough time writing about my own life more than once a month it may be difficult to do anything else around that, but maybe once school starts and the job has settled down a bit and I get into a routine I'll be able to find time to do it. Hmm...food for thought.

-Chris

Swear I'm Eatin' Bacon....

Last night was just an incredible night. We played first, in front of some incredible bands, after us Walrus played then The Alumni Club then Love Me Electric then Flowers for Dorian. They were some incredible bands and we had an amazing time.

First of all, FUCK YOU. To every person that has been condescending towards us and our music. We worked so unbelievably hard on this show and EVERYTHING paid off last night. We played in front of roughly 150 people last night, which for those of you that don't know the feeling, was INCREDIBLE. At the end of the night we were told we drew 70 people to the show. It's an incredible feeling when you know that you don't know 70 people and couldn't possibly have made that many people come. We had roughly 30 friends and family show up, which doesn't account for the 40 other people that showed up. Its insane that we have fans. I know that sounds ridiculous that I'd be surprised that our band would have fans, but I've never been in a band that has fans before so it's all sort of mind blowing.

But aside from drawing that many people one of the most intense things of the evening was looking down from the stage during the set and seeing people I don't know singing along with me. It was crazy absolutely crazy.

We made a lot of friends last night and hopefully be playing with them again very soon.

That's all for now.

Chris

The Progression of John Kerry

Am I really the only one that can see it? It starts out as the dude from Boys Like Girls, to the infamous mobster Dorian Tyrell from The Mask, finally to his ripe old age. It's sort of eerie...

Chri$

One kiss to set me free.

Love is a weird thing. There are varying degrees of it. There's love that you have for someone as a friend, but it grows and then maybe you want to be more than just friends. Love is telling you there could be so much more; that looking at her like a friend isn't enough. You see through a lens. Regardless of the outcome you invest so much into that friendship, that love, and then you have to watch it walk off into the distance with someone else that that "lens" that you're looking through shows you he's not right for her, but you have to just sit and watch her leave.

Then there's the love of one that you're not entirely sure it CAN love you back. You want it to you dream about it, and wish for it, but are they just dreams and wishes? Something that you can't have or maybe shouldn't have? It's that love that is complicated. The situation tells you that it's a bad idea that there is no way you can give into. Chances are you might ruin something that isn't yours to ruin. At the same time though, love is persistent and it won't let you give up. So here you are sitting with a heavy heart and no place to put it....yet?

Then there is the pure and unrequited love of a newly married couple. One you can look at and see that the future is going to be ok. A love that each can see exactly what they are looking for and want in each other. Unfailing, new, beautiful, and long lasting.

There are so many different types of love. Honestly, its hard to see two of my best friends in situations they don't have a lot of control over, but have so much invested in. That's life though isn't? Giving, giving, and giving only for it to be taken eventually? But if there is anything that they should see is that newly married couple and know that everything will be alright in the end...

Something Everyone Should Check Out. Chris' Hilarious Prank!

Alright, so along time go Dave played a horrible horrible trick on me. He emailed me with his magic from Johnny Minardi who is the A&R guy from Fueled by Ramen saying that he was interested in working with our band. Long story short I had a panic attack until dave called me back and told me it wasn't true. So as a repercussion I set a men seeking men ad up on Craigslist for Dave. It looks like this http://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/cas/723524629.html

It was hilarious. Needless to say we got some hilarious HILARIOUS responses. So I decided that I would set it up so all my friends can see the hilarious things men in chicago are saying about Dave. And how badly they want him.

Go to http://www.gmail.com

The Username is: daveschwantes0 (<--that's a zero not an "o")
Password is: blink182!

Check out the emails that he got from the gays of Chicago.

Enjoy everyone.

Chris

Salute Your Solution

Heyo.

So I've been absent from the blogosphere for quite sometime now. I suppose a lot of stuff has happened since then.

(Sorry to all those reading this on Saturday I know how badly you long for something to read during work days. Wait till Monday.)

Schools done, as well as, Minty Fresh. It was sad for me to leave there. I've been there 3 days a week for almost 6 months. It was a lot of fun I learned so much from it, as well as, gained a lot of contacts that hopefully will be useful in the future. Needless to say, it was like mourning the passing of someone. Jim and Anthony were awesome to me and I hope that continues to be my experience in the industry (I know it won't).

On an up swing it looks like I might have an internship at CRC (Chicago Recording Company www.chicagorecording.com). Which is awesome. Although it's not totally my background, but I talked it over with Jim and decided it's just a good idea to be well rounded and have as much experience as possible in the industry.

Now I've started the no job/no school part of my summer. Which sucks because I really need a job. I've been hitting craigslist a lot, with very few successes. I had an interview sort of thing on Wednesday we'll see what happens on Monday.

The American Autumn its continuing to go really really strong. We've had a couple of shows. One at a coffee shop around the corner from my apartment with Bryan's new band, The Uncontrollable Few. I was really excited to see them and I'd have to say I was extremely pleasantly surprised. They are really awesome song writers and had a lot of good hooks. We were told by the guitar player that we have more hooks than a long John Silvers convention. I'm pretty sure that's a compliment.

Then Saturday we played a awesome show with our new friends from Walrus (myspace.com/walrus3) and The Fastest Kid Alive (myspace.com/thefasteskidalive). It was a lot of fun hanging out with them and playing (despite having to play first). We'll probably be taking a break from Morris shows for a little while. It's really hard to get people out to that.

Since Dane's wedding is coming up we are kind of on a month and a half long show break, which is a fucking relief. We've been playing a lot of shows lately so it feels like we are always getting ready for shows rather than writing or recording, so it'll be nice to kind of be able to breathe a bit. We've gotten so many offers lately it seems hilarious to be a 7 month old band that really could be full time if we wanted to be.

So during our break we are finishing the recordings of our new stuff, writing a bit, and designing shirts. Which I'm super fucking stoked for. Right now we are in the crunching numbers/ideas phase of the project, but we really want to have them for our July 15th show. Which, for those that don't know, will be at Clearwater Theater and will be an ENORMOUS show. With our friends from Flowers for Dorian (myspace.com/flowersfordorian) and Walrus (see above). And some people we've run into before, but haven't really gotten to know YET Love Me Electric (myspace.com/lovemeelectric) and The Alumni Club (myspace.com/thealumniclub). They are all really huge bands in the area and we are INCREDIBLY lucky to be on this show. And it's looking like it'll be one of the biggest shows I've played ever in my life. So let anyone of us know if you want to come because we have tickets for it.

Also to be noted is that we are starting to shop (maybe preemptively) for studios and producers to do a full length with. It's always been sort of grail for us not ever having put out a full length (in any band any of us have been in). So hopefully maybe end of summer fallish area we'll be going back into the studio. That's going to be awesome.

I'm trying to think if there is anything else excited....

OH JESUS!

We are having a band sleep over tomorrow night. I know what you're thinking...that's a little gay. And I can only reiterate...It's cool we're in a band.

It's going to be a fun awesome filled night of killer koolaid, guitar hero, scattegories, the pug, and probably Ghosthunters. It's going to be AWESOME. It's more than ok to be jealous I would be if I weren't me.

I don't know that was kind of long, but i think thats everything. I currently smells because I didn't wear deodorant today...shit.

Oh and check out our myspace.com/theamericanautumn because we got a new layout and it looks awesome. Stop by tell us what you think.

Love,
Chri$

Why I hate the media/the government.

Here is why I hate the media and government and not just for the obvious reasons. I know what you are thinking that everybody knows that they both suck, but not like this.

I think it's pretty evident that we are in a current economic crisis right? The media and government....just got caught up:

http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/05/real_estate/Bernanke_home_prices_and_foreclosures/index.htm?eref=rss_topstories

Chri$

When life gives you lemons, just say 'Fuck the lemons,' and bail.

First and foremost, Mila Kunis (Jackie from That 70's Show), is a fucking babe. More on that later.

This has been a ridiculous week.

Monday wasn't really all that exciting I finished writing the reviews I was supposed to turn in on Sunday.

Tuesday I went to class and then I went to the A Wilhelm Scream show, which was fucking incredible. Unfortunately, they were opening for Unseen and there were TONS of street punk kids there. Although, it was awesome to see that street punk isn't dead, but of course they were all beating the shit out of each other. A Wilhelm Scream was honestly incredible though. That was one of three times that I've seen them live and every time was a little more awesome than the last. They played a lot of awesome songs and I was sort of in the pit hitting kids with my backpack. Twas awesome.

Then Wednesday was kind of crazy. Dave and I started off at Byron's, which actually I just watched Dave embarrass (embarrassment to everyone else...you know people that have shame) himself by devouring two chili cheese dogs. Eventually, we made it to the beach where we smoked hookah and drank beers because it was really gorgeous outside.

Yesterday, again, was a crazy day. Due to a platonic sleepover I woke up and wrote a paper during the time I was supposed to be in class. Then it was off to band practice, which was also incredible. Honestly, it was a good practice not only because it was really good to just rock out, but because we kind of took time as a band to just hang out which isn't really something that we've done in a while. We kind of just play shows and then split or band practice and split. THAT LEADS ME TO SLEEPOVER!!!

Dave, Josh and I are going to sleep over at Dane's with TONS of crazy bread, koolaid, skittles, and STAYING UP LATE WATCHING MOVIES OR GHOSTHUNTERS IT'S GONNA BE AWESOME!

Back to Thursday night. After practice Josh, Dave, Carly, Katie, and I went back to the city to pick up Katie H from Irving Park station and then Golden Nugget. After GN we went and bought beer and other liquor and basically people got shit canned at our apartment and threw up.

Today we woke up went to IHOP and then down to visit my old man at his work. After which he bought us all dinner and then we went drinking for a bit before heading home and seeing Forgetting Sarah Marshall and you guess it! Back to talking about Jackie.

First of all, the movie was hilarious it really was worth paying to see it and when I get home I'm going to look for it online. Jackie is a gorgeous gorgeous girl in that movie. She's hot as hell; I honestly can't stress that enough. See the movie for if nothing else, but its also hilarious. Paul Rudd is in it=awesome.

Anyway, that concludes my ridiculous week.

Also I think I decided that I'm going to start posting all the reviews that I for Wonka Vision. Just because my opinions matter! And also because I really enjoyed trashing the band Danger Radio and want everyone to read it...then NOT listen to the record because I don't want to do that to any of my friends.

I think thats it. Dane's wedding show tomorrow! Woohoo!

Chri$

WOOHOO!

Today The American Autumn myspace broke a hundred listens. A hundred legitimate listens not listens because our guitar player spent most of the night finding hacked 18-30 year old myspace girls profiles to befriend.

Its so crazy how this stuff is working out that people will be at our show on the 24th and singing out lyrics....

I'm gonna pass out.

Chri$

Our complacency won't last much longer...

Hello friends.

Its been a couple of weeks since I've wrote anything and I guess a couple things have happened. First of all, I reread my blog about the Zolof show and let me just tell you as to be expected that night didn't not go down like we thought it would.

We went to the show and saw them...they were awesome then we went to Flash Taco (myself, josh, dave, and Eileen). While we were eating our delicious tacos we noticed people we dancing on the street corner, so obviously, we joined in their charade and it was terrific. Everyone was topless and dancing to some eighties hits. We were getting honks and screaming people stopped and got out over their cars to take pictures of us/with us. some of those pictures can be found here. Keep clicking next. Anyway that was awesome. I know more crazy stuff happened that week I think on Wednesday, but I'm not quite sure what it was.

Then dave's birthday happened in there somewhere I made him sing karaoke at the ole holiday club. That was well worth it.

Then we had the Fearless Radio interview this Wednesday which was awesome and a lot fun. Its funny when we did that interview with Davenport it was a long time ago, but we really didn't know what to do with it. It's kind of funny how much wiser or motivated we've gotten since Davenport because its such a huge promo tool to push with.

I feel like something ridiculous happened last weekend, but I dont know what it was. Typically, every weekend gets a little crazy.

So Friday this weekend dave and i went out with sarah eileen and adina, which was a blast we went to an odd party and then drinking at this really hipster bar. Then saturday was the show, which, logistically was a nightmare, but we made a couple of fans sold a couple of cds and made a couple of contacts. Evidentially some woman has a contact at Victory Records and wanted our demo and contact info because she was going to send it to someone. Thats really awesome not that I want to sign to Victory, but it was nice of her and who knows what can come out of it. Maybe instead of signing a typical p & d contract we can just license them our music that way we can control our masters and not give them a choice to take out as much in royalties. We'll see though. Reguardless the show was fun and then we spent of the rest of the night hanging out with eileen and adina.

Today...bummin it. tons of shit to do.

I think i'm caught up in life but who knows maybe i'll think of something later and repost.

Till then.

Chri$

insert Explosions in the Sky lyrics...

Thats supposed to be comical because ya know, they are an instrumental band. Anywho I went and saw EITS tonight at the Pabst (yup the beer) Theatre tonight with Josh and my brother-in-law Sam. Seriously, it was nearly spiritual. They were unbelievably incredible. I decided why I really liked seeing instrumental bands like them.

You know how when you are seeing a band (with a vocalist) or listening to a record and you are waiting for that song that reminds you of something or someone or makes you feel a certain way and your excited to belt it out or just sit and dwell on it? Well thats what all instrumental music, or Explosions, is one big song that you are listening to that makes you realize why you listen to music. I guess that sounds confusing when I reread it, but I know how I feel so fuck you.

Also I'm not sure what the chances are, but I'm almost positive they are slim to none of Josh and I running into Bob Taylor, Weenis, Little Zacharias, and Kerrigan at the show tonight. Literally, we sat a row away from them. Anyway it was really really good to see bobby because its been like 2 years. The Pabst is in Milwaukee.

Tomorrow night ZOLOF AND THE ROCK AND ROLL DESTROYER at Subterranean with Josh and Dave. I'm excited for an extremely up beat night.

I also recently decided that I can go a couple of months with out having sex and be relatively fine. But we've gone two weeks without practice and its driving me CRAZY! I need to rock out and just play my music. Its been an odd couple of weeks....really odd couple of weeks. And I just need to get all this pent up feelings out of my blood. So we have practice/recording thursday (i think) which is going to be awesome I can't wait.

Again be on the look out for new American Autumn stuff shouldn't be hitting you soon.

I think thats it for now.
Chris

360 degrees of your body.

Where to start? Another awesome weekend come and gone.

Friday was our show in Morris at Sonic Portrait. Needless to say the show was awesome. It definitely made me once again appreciate what shows are supposed to be all about. There was a good number of people there. We played an awesome set and everyone seemed to be impressed with us. We sold a couple of CDs, which is always awesome. Then pretty much the rest of the night we hung out with the guys from Coventry, who are awesome fucking guys and so is their music. (myspace.com/coventry). We had blast hanging out with them in the parking lot and playing hacky sack with Carly's phone. We were there until about 1:30 plus a stop to IHOP and then we went home.

Saturday: Dave and I spent the day tracking down contact info to labels that we wanted to send out CD to and we stuffed envelopes and sent them out. Then Bryan came over with some sailor jerry rum, which was freaking awesome. As i was doing research on my next tattoo i came across basically the sailor jerry franchise, which included this rum, so needless to say I was excited to try it. So Dave, Bryan, and I sat around drinking rum and cokes while watching cartoons. Then katie showed up and then eileen showed up. Then beer pong happened. Then drunk happened. Evidentially we went to congress theater and then we came back home did hilarious things to entertain roommates then sleep.

Today kind of a relaxing day sat on the couch for some of it. Dave left for nashville which begins the almost 2 week stint of me going through his stuff and attempting to fill the iguana cage with popcorn.

Then this week starts recording with z band, which I'm super stoked for. Its not that our EP isn't good (because it is) its that our songs are getting better and more mature and I'm really excited to capture those new ones. I think we'll be recording 4? Maybe She likes the radio, ghost town, our new untitled lyricless one, and a body for arms which isn't actually new and maybe bombshells full band not acoustic i'm not sure. So everyone who knows whats good for them should be on the look out for those. Its going to be nice to be able to kind of do this at our own pace with out having to worry about money/time constraints.

I think thats it for right now probably until next weekend, which i hear is easter OH AND THE PUGS BIRTHDAY! I was told by my mom that i couldn't come to easter hung over again, which i don't know seems weird to me.

Tomorrow might be an interesting day too...we'll see.

Anywho later boners.

Chris

I've always been a sucker for a brown eyed punk rock girl.

So an awesome weekend has come and passed. Although, I realized that I don't have to many weekends that aren't really awesome in someway or another. So Friday was a blast because we (the roomies + other crazies) went to a sketch comedy show. This is the flicker page of the girl in the middle she was one of the actors in the group. Look at Dave and I being touchy feely ;).
If you keep scrollin through there are more pictures that Dave and I snuck in, as well as, ones with Jen and some other people we went with. It was a lot of fun basically it was a bunch of sketches with drinking games in between.

Then on Saturday we took it kind of easy, except for going to Chuck E. Cheese and ripping the place off. It turns out that Lago still has the keys to the coins so we just stole a ton of tokens and then won 2000 tickets. Which we traded in for 2000 tickets worth of air heads...best fucking deal in the world.

Then Sunday was our show at PRP, which I think went really well. We made like forty bucks and brought the most people to the show and I think we are starting to get fans. There was this girl that was at the Clearwater Show and then she came to this show and she told us she'd keep coming because we were awesome. See Myspace comments.

Then we have a show this Friday in Morris Illinois, which is roughly an hour and a half from Chicago. We are taking car loads of people from the 'burbs, as well as, from the city, so if you want a ride let us know. We are playing with a pretty big band called Coventry; its going to be awesome.

Anyway, overall pretty fun weekend. But today I had to say goodbye to Jim and Anthony because they are going to SXSW the rest of this week...which I of course will NOT be going to. I don't want to talk about it. Stupid AP made me really sad because they sent me my laminate for their private party. Stupid AP....

We also got our CDs back which means that we now have CDs for sale. So Dave and I are really excited for, what I've discovered the "industry" calls, "servicing" the record. Basically, mailing it to labels and radio stations and promoters. Its going to be a lot of fun because I've learned a lot about it from Minty Fresh, so that experience will help us push this CD to the right people.

Then finally, a shameless plug.

We really want to play the Ernie Ball Stage at Warped Tour. So, if whoever reads this, could go to warpedtour.battleofthebands.com and register and the go HERE and vote that would be awesome.

I can't say that I honestly think we'll make it and be able to play Warped Tour, but it doesn't hurt to try and the worst thing that happens is we don't make it and we just did a TON of promotion for our band...

Anywho. I think thats it for now. I'm finally going to sit down and write some samples.

Later Boners

Chris

When time and confusion collide.

First of all, WOOHOO to me I've gotten a 100 views on my blog, which probably are mostly me just rereading my own stuff to see if I say anything really dumb.

Moving on to other things. Josh and I decided to make the trip to Texas for SXSW the week of March 12th. We'll leave Wednesday and go to Sunday just kind of party hopping and checking out music. I was talking to Anthony and he said you really don't even need to buy the $600 music pass you can just party hop and there is free beer and food all weekend, so needless to say Josh and I are kind of just going down there to wing it. We'll probably tag a long with Anthony and Jim (owners of Minty Fresh) a bit. Anthony said he'd show us around a bit. We plan on bringing a ton of our demos and just pass them out to everyone. I started signing up for certain parties that you have to RSVP to, so we'll pass out a lot a the AP magazine one. I don't know, we'll see what happens it should be a lot of fun despite what certain people say...and NO LASSOS will be involved.

There are perks to interning at a record label aside from getting to get into SXSW things by saying I work for Minty Fresh Records. I'm going to a magazine's party tomorrow. I'm not really sure what its for, but Anthony asked me if I wanted to go and its open bar so...you can't really lose. So I'll go possibly just hang out with Anthony; possibly just drink for free.

I've moved out of my indie phase. I'm stuck in a really awkward one; mostly involving Peter, Paul and Mary. Well, in my defense I have to learn this song for a wedding that Josh and I are playing this Saturday. Its kind of funny how since Josh and I are the "musical" ones in the family we get contracted to play weddings a lot. So, I figured in 10 years or so if I haven't made something of myself, I'll just become a wedding singer.

We finally all sat down and talked about living arrangements for the end of the lease. What we are really shooting for now I guess, is a house with myself, Dave, Josh, Rich and Kyle. It will be crazy if it can actually happen, but we'll just have to wait and see.

Lately I've been really thing about what it is exactly I'm doing with my life. I've become so disheartened....disenchanted? with the "music" life. I just don't know what to do about it. My fear is that I continue down this road of getting a music degree and then find that I'll have no where to go because the music industry is over-flowing with the degenerates trying to "make it" in music now, who know what it'll be like in 2 or 3 more years, ya know? And I'm surrounded by all these people that are doing music as a side part of their lives and leading "normal" lives with "normal" jobs and are doing really well for themselves. I supposed my fear spawns from being afraid I'll be 60K in debt and not being able to pay that off because I'll never make enough money to be comfortable.

Which of course leads to the question should I let my life be lead by money? And I shouldn't be and everyone will say that, but the reality of it is that you can't survive in this country without money. It's impossible and I'd love not to have to worry about money like I see my parents doing all the time.

The other thing is lets say, ok yeah I'll make money when I get out of college because there will be jobs, but if I want to make serious money in music I'll have to leave Chicago, unless of course the Chi-town scene explodes soon *waiting....*. And I don't want to leave Chicago that would suck, every other places sucks hard.

I don't know, I'm probably worrying about this way to much. Maybe. I don't know.

So my plan b is to never get a job and keep taking out student loans till I die and then let my kids have to deal with...Yeah solid plan.

What else can we touch on in my boredum?

How about love? Love is a funny thing. I know I've talked about it before and hell I even have the word tattooed on my wrist...so does josh *cough*copy cat*cough*.

I think I'm doing alright without it. It was a little rough there for a bit, I felt lonely, but I think I'm going to make it. Its kind of odd thinking about how long I've been single for. I mean I haven't had an offical "girlfriend" there have been girls I guess, but I've not been in a serious relationship in awhile.

Not saying that everyone can make it without it cause some people need it. Love that is. But there are other people that really deserve it. I know thats a weird thing to say, but some people really do. Although, I think that it can be mistaken for people that are used to having it. You have to be careful cause I've seen that slippery slope of people that are in repetitive relationships with people and they can't see it and they can't hear you either.

Love can be a crappy topic I guess, but its good to not forget about it. Its weird when i talk about it (not to be overly dramatic), but I can kind of feel that empty feeling in the center of my chest. Could just be all the mac and cheese I ate earlier digesting...

Lastly, I forgot how Never Take Friendship Personal was such a good album

Thats it I guess I'm done rambling.

Goodnight.

Chris

Haven't done this in a while.

This is a bryan inspired questionaire that i haven't done in a long time.

Open iTunes (or Windows Media Player, etc) to answer the following. Go to your library. Answer, no matter how embarrasing it is.

How many songs? 11226

Sort by song title:
First Song: "A"-Cartel
Last Song: "******"-Jets to Brazil

Sort by time:
Shortest Song: "Funkenstein Intro Funky Crime" (0:04) ~ Red Hot Chili Peppers
Longest Song: "The Reckoning (Don't Tread on Me) (21:04) ~ Iced Earth
-all 21 mintures are music thank you hair metal.

Sort by album:
First Album: About A Burning Building - Blindside
Last Album: 9 - Damien Rice

Top Five Most Played Songs:
1: Hero/Heroine - Boys Like Girls
2: Fell In Love Without You -Motion City Soundtrack
3: Sowing Season (Yeah) - Brand New
4: The Pretender - Foo Fighters
5: ........ god damn it... Misery Buisness - Paramore

First song that comes up on Shuffle?
No Need To Argue - The Cranberries

How many songs come up when you search for "sex"? 46

How many songs come up when you search for "death"? 74

How many songs come up when you search for "love"? 402

How many songs come up when you search for "you"? 1444


Alright This was the First one i did.


pen iTunes (or Windows Media Player, etc) to answer the following. Go to your library. Answer, no matter how embarrasing it is.

How many songs? 4031

Sort by song title:
First Song: ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead "It was there that i saw you."
Last Song: Zwan "Come With Me"

Sort by time:
Shortest Song: The Ataris "Untitled" (00:04)
Longest Song: The Bled "I don't keep with liars" (37:46)

Sort by album:
First Album: ...And Don't Forget to Breathe- A Static Lullabye
Last Album: Good Charlotte- Young and Aspiring

Top Five Most Played Songs:
1: Hotel Correl Essex- The Bled
2: Dirt off Your Shoulders/Lying- Jay-z/Linkin Park
3: Deadbolt- Thrice
4: Barely Breathing- Duncan Shiek
5: Futures- Jimmy Eat World

First song that comes up on Shuffle?
"What would you say"- Dave Matthews Band

How many songs come up when you search for "sex"? 8

How many songs come up when you search for "death"? 40

How many songs come up when you search for "love"? 69

How many songs come up when you search for "you"? 406

Jesus I almost have 3 times as many songs as I did this December 9th, 2005. Well I guess that good considering how long ago that was. hilarious.

Later Boners

I'll annoy you with every waking breath until you decide to wake up.

So I think I'm going to ramble a little bit, I guess. I thought about writing about how many jobs that I've had and what they were entailing because god I've had a lot of jobs and its been a really wide range of those, but it sound pretty boring so I think I'll pass.

Today Josh, Carly, and I went to NIU to join in the counter-protest of the Westboro Baptist church, who was planning on protesting the vigil for the kids shot at NIU. Saying that the shooter was a god send and that they deserved to die. Their basic stance is that the world is condemned by god because of their acceptance of homosexuals and everything bad that happens is gods vengeance against the world accepting gays.

Anyway we went down there and these people never showed and we were told that they are going to be back on Sunday. I'm pretty stoked to be protesting these insane people. Check out some of their radical beliefs at there website....www.godhatesfags.com Yeah you read that the right way thats the name of their website. If you dare check out some of their unbelievable shit.

CDs were pressed, but they didn't turn out very good, so we are going to have to send them back to get them reprinted. Needless to say, we'll have to wait a little bit longer to get famous. But it better happen soon cause i'm getting bored of unfamous life.

Anyway I'm tired i'm going to bed.

Later.

Chris

New Albums....

Recently I've been in a very indie/acoustic mood it' been kind of strange because usually it's just a one or two night stint that I find myself in, but lately it's been all indie-rock all the time.

First I got the new Helio Sequence record, which happened like this. I was on myspace and they were a "featured artist" so I popped onto their myspace and started listening to their single. And i was really digging the intro guitar parts and drum parts and I said to myself "If the singer is what i want his voice to sound like I'll by the record." Sure enough, it did so I hopped onto the Sub Pop site and bought the record. It came last week and actually is a pretty good record. So that might be something for you to check out. Sub Pop is exactly what you want when you feel in the mood for indie. Home to Iron and Wine for those that don't know.

The second record I picked up was the new Nada Surf record. Here's a nostalgic story for you. When I used to work at Peter's Bakery, every Sunday morning when I had to be there at 5 am Colin Remes and I would get food or drink from the corner coffee shop by the train station in Cary. There was a guy that worked there and nearly every time that I saw him he was wearing a Nada Surf shirt. At one point we got into a discussion about bands and he mentioned that he loved Nada Surf and listened to them almost exclusively, but also enjoyed the Ataris. At that point, for whatever reason, I was completely turned off to Nada Surf. Every time this band was ever mentioned I thought of this guy and he was a really weird guy so I never bothered to check them out. 6 years later Dane and Emily get engaged and ask Josh and I to play the song "Your Legs Grow" at their wedding. So that was the first time I ever listened to them and I fell in love with them.

Back to the new record. It's incredible. "Weightless" is an incredible song. You should check it out.

Next album I downloaded was the new City & Colour record "Bring Me Your Love." Guess what? Awesome record. I heard the single "Waiting..." on myspace and watched the video and it's was awesome so I had been waiting for it to pop up on bt. Sure enough it did and boy was it worth the wait.

Lastly, the new Jack Johnson record. Honestly, I really haven't given this much time I really did a one-half payed attention to-listen and that was it, but I think its something I can get behind with a little more attention.

Furthermore, Foo Fighters...I'm back on yet another, Foo Fighters stint and it is glorious, but it hasn't been the crazy rock on In Your Honor (disc 1) or "Pretender"; its been the slow stuff. For example disc 2 of in your honor and the fucking incredible DVD of that tour as well as the slower stuff on Echoes.

Winter is bringing out indie in me, or maybe it's minty fresh considering there we listen to nothing, but indie rock.

Anyway, that does it for albums of the past two weeks. Hopefully metal will come back into play and I can throw new Protest back in the rotation, but I won't get my hopes up.

Going to bed since I have to get up tomorrow. Should be a good weekend looks like going out with Bryan tomorrrow, which may I add has been to long because sometimes I miss my Bwyan...

Also next week is mine and Dave's two month anniversary for not grocery shopping. i think congratulations is in order?

Goodnight all.

Chris

Dinosaurs Eat Everybody Records!

So I've sort of officially/unofficially started Dinosaurs Eat Everybody Records. Yes its named after Dave's website or whatever website development company he has. I don't really know what he's doing, but anyway yeah. I've been talking to Jim and Anthony a lot about it (owners of Minty Fresh Records). So they've been kind of helping me get started, but I think what we are going to do is start with a compilation of unsigned bands in chicago. And I've been thinking about doing a showcase/benefit show for Invisible Children. And call it like "Chicago Comes to Uganda" or something I don't know I'd like something more catchy or something, but I'd like to do it during the summer. I'd like to do it at the Metro. I've got the number for Invisible Children so I could easily get them to endorse it and probably promote it a bit and they suggested trying to get a venue to donate the use for the show. So if the metro doesn't want to donate a whole night, I'd like to charge at the door and have proceeds go to Uganda, but the Metro could take some of the door/ticket sales and probably be happy about that. Then i was thinking have the whole night recorded and have a cd that we sell for Invisible Children again proceeds going to Uganda. And then maybe have all the bands have the merch, but Invisible Children has merch to maybe get them to send a couple of boxes of stuff this way that we could sell at the show.

Anyway the whole point of it being "Dinosaurs Eat Everybody and Invisible Children Presents Chicago Underground Comes to Uganda" or whatever and have that promote the label using the Invisble Children because somehow this organization has assimilated into the "scene." Anyway these are all ideas i had while not being able to sleep last night like every freaking night.

I'm sure there are more to come, but Press Release.

Dinosaurs Eat Everybody Records Signs The American Autumn!

Up and coming Chicago pop-punk label signs first band.

Woohoo!

Talk to you later.

What's new?

Um. I don't really know if there is a whole lot that's new I'm just wide awake, like I always am at this hour, and felt like writing out thoughts.

Well first of all, The American Autumn has a couple of shows coming up which is really awesome. I have to say that I'm really excited for them. Today I overnighted the demo to the duplicators (because their ftp server was down) and it takes 10-12 days for a turn around on the CDs and since the show is like 10 days(?) from today we'll see what happens we may have them we may not. The art work looks totally awesome I'm so glad we have Dane in the band to do all this awesome graphics stuff. We also have stickers and pins, again courtesy of Dane. I'm excited to see the stickers tomorrow because we have band practice.

Wait sorry tangent, back to the shows. The first show is at Reggie's on February 3rd. I'm excited for this bill (despite being on the superbowl, but who really cares about that) because we are playing with Facing Giants. They are pretty good band and they seem to have a draw and the other bands are promoting this show a little bit too. I can't really say what will happen because in Davenport we'd always catch ourself saying, "I think there will be a lot people there" and then only 3 or 4 people would be there. Eventually, and pretty pathetically, it became a running joke for the band. Although granted we did at one point play for no one (the sound guy left the room after setting up).

Damn another tangent, anyway, josh is having a some people come out from work and there are a couple people that are planning on coming out so that's pretty exciting. Then those that can't make it to that show are going to come and see us at Clearwater on February 5th. Where we are playing with the lead singer and guitar player from boysetsfire's side project band called The Chasing Out. So that's kind of exciting. I'm really looking forward to those shows to actually playing out for the first time because my birthday party doesn't really count.

So our myspace gets 20-40 listens a day, which I find pretty miraculous because, well we haven't played out yet. Who knows what's going to happen once people actually hear our music. I mean it was once described to be like herpes-fun to catch hard to get rid of. Speaking of "catchyness" Dave found this website online that has to do with math and comparing the algorithms of something beyond my comprehension. Anyway, you submit your songs to this website and then it rates your songs mathematically comaring to songs that have topped billboard charts qualifying them as "hits". Anyway so this thing analyzes your songs and gives you a rating on how whether or not your song, mathematically speaking, can be a hit. If the numbers are above 6.5 your song can be a hit and if they are around 7 they are the highest level of likely hood of being a hit. Well after that ridiculously long explanation of this website. All of our songs rated between a 6.7 and 6.97. Needless to say we are on the right track when it comes to writing songs cause we are writing hits.

I started reading a new book today called Coma written by Alex Garland, who wrote Beach and the movie "28 Days Later". Anyway, I started it today and I'm already halfway through it, it's kind of a quick read, but so far its really good.

I've been listening to this band called Number One Gun non freaking stop except for today when I got the new Protest the Hero. Anyway it's this Christian band on Tooth and Nail. It's just so damn catchy so unbelievably catchy. I can't say I'd ever really like to play this music, but it just really catches my ear and plus I'm enjoying to much what we are writing in The American Autumn.

But yeah I got new Protest the Hero and I haven't really given it a good listen to yet, but once I got it I cranked the volume and through it on for a bit.

I also got the new Mars Volta, which I haven't listened to at all, but plan to on the train ride tomorrow.

Other than that not a whole lot that's coming out thats really caught my eye. I think it's time to start taking a trip down memory lane. For example, the other morning I woke up and through on Ugly Organ. Great freaking record.

Oh yeah No Use for a Name is puting out a new record soon is at sad that the nostalgic emo kid inside me is really excited about that album? No...no it's not.

Working at minty fresh is probably the best thing I really could have done this semester. Which doesn't start till next week (nice). I've learned so much from those guys and there is so much more to learn. Everytime I walk home from there (well walk to the addison stop) I just think about how I'd love to do this for the rest of my life (if i wasn't in a band). Just working at a label, preferably my own (go dinosaurseateverybody records), and how that would just be incredible. But I'd much rather play in a band and write music for the rest of my life. Speaking of I saw Juno and man if Jason Baitman's character isn't exactly who I want to be (sans an uncommitted husband) just a guy writing jingles and getting paid a ton for it.

Anyway, Minty Fresh is awesome I'll be there for awhile. It was actually really awesome today at minty fresh Jim (president) bought me lunch, but i had to go get it at the local Pot Belly's down the street and there I saw a kid that was in my intro to management class and this kid was a really big douche. He was always acting like he was smarter than the professor and just obnoxious. Anyway at the begninning of the semester we were asked what we wanted to do for the rest of our lives and he said own and run a record label. So when the girl that was working with him asked me what i did i of course jumped at the opportunity to say, "Oh I work in an office down the street Minty Fresh Records" and I didn't really catch a response from him, but I hope it stung. I felt like saying "finish making my sandwich so i can get back to bettering my career, thanks", but i didn't.

Anyway now that it's almost 2:30 I think I'm going to go to bed or at least lay here and think about being famous. I think if i think about it enough it will happen...right?

Goodnight.

Drinking Onzie Wednesday

Wednesday:

Dave hung out in the onzie; I hung out it my green man suit. We drank. Then in an episode of scrubs JD and Turk have walkie talkie bracelets. And like most things that I see on my favorite TV shows i bought dave and i walkie talkie bracelets.

Sometimes I wish i could be other people watching dave and i...then i realize that its to good to be us...just to good.

You had time to waste and i'm not sorry

So i'm not even sure where to begin about this break. I mean i started a little short story about where this break started with that ridiculously awesome night with everyone until 5 am on that saturday.

So starting from there

Sunday was the relax and catch up on sleep day, but on sunday night we had xmas part 1 with my relatives from out of town. Which actually was a lot of fun my immediate family was all there it was pretty fun having a drink with my cousin and brothers.

Then monday (xmas eve) i went to mills to have a b horror xmas themed night. We watch silent night deadly night 1 and 2 both great flicks. I had already seen 1, but not two, but two was more a lot of stock footage from one, but had a lot of good quotes "GARBAGE DAY!"

Christmas day was pretty good we had family over at our house which was pretty fun opened some presents got to see my grandma since she didn't make it to turkey day. Then i went to codys for a bit to see the folks i didn't get to see. Then i went to mills with cody to watch Silent night bloody night which was pretty awful, but it was thought envoking which is odd for these sorts of movies.

Wednesday I can't seem to really remember what happened i feel like it was something with the out of town cats. Yeah i think that was the night that me dave jeff kyle sarah kevin andrea and corey went to goveners. It was a blast to see jeff and kyle and corey the out of towners i miss them all. Although kyle says he maybe coming back and now that i'm 21 a trip to vegas to see corey is in order.

Then on thursday we went to acoustic band practice at danes, which is always a lot of fun. We ran through all the songs for recording and chit chatted a lot about band stuff and then of course little ceasers at one point there was like an 11 minute rock out to meat loaf i think and we made a musical for the song which i assume meatloaf will be getting back to us about.

Friday i went out to dinner with mark and jon which was a lot of fun. I couldn't believe it took that long to get tother it was the four of us again, we had a really good time. So i hung out at marks for a little bit afterward and then i went to cassies for trival pursuit/the most intesnse game of ping pong i have ever played. After Jeff and i kicked the shit out of everyone in trivial pursuit jeff myself russ and dave started our 4 hour ping pong journey. It was intense we all had our really awesome moments but i'd have to say that jeff and russ were probably the best. After our ping pong addiction was over and it dawned on me that i didn't grab the triple rectifier from marks house dave and i headed over there at roughly 2 in the morning to grab it. Luckily marks girlfriend kiley was up and were able to get it. After that dave and i met katie and her friend kelly at around the clock for some early early morning food. We were there until about 4 when we drove back home to chicago to get some shut eye for recording the next day.

Unfortunaly we got home at about 5 and didn't get to bed until about 5:30 and then woke up to dane ringing our doorbell at about 11:30-noonish area. We were supposed to be at the studio at 1, but do to dave and me sleeping in and josh being late we didn't get there till about 1:30 close to 2.

It was just an overall increcible experience there. It was a really long 12 hour session and we pretty much plowed right through the whole thing we tracked all the songs live then went back over some mistakes and then did vocals and by the time we got done it was a little after 1. It was a really really long day.

Then on sunday we went back to semaphore for the mix down which tooke roughly 6 hours. ALl in all the recording expereince was really awesome and we are really happy with the outcome and i just can't wait to see where it takes us.

Then sunday natalie and sarah and their friends called dave around midnight so we all went out to a hookah bar and had a really good time. The hookah bar was really nice, but we were out till like 3:30. It was a pretty ridiculous night all in all.

Then monday night was new years eve. I woke up at like 2 in the afternoon. It was gorgeous sleeping in that late absolutely gorgeous. Then i went shopping for the part which was probably one of the worst decisions i've ever made was going to jewel on new years eve. But after getting back from that hell hole i basically waited for everyone to come over

We had a nice little new years eve party at the apartment just a couple of people relaxing to bring in the new year. Then everyone else came home from the hilton and more ridiculous shit happened.

And then tuesday was mostly spent sleeping.

Then today we woke up and i guess our furnace was broken so we didn't have heat most of the day. So we all hunkered down on the couch together and spent most of the night there while the heating guy came and fixed our heat and all was good.

Moral of the story this Christmas break has been the most ridiculous experiences of my life. And i still have till january 28th till class starts again. how much more crazy can this get? We'll see.

Goodnighte everyone.

Chris