Lets Revisit Shall We (BATTLEHOOCH U.S. Tour 2010 Part 6)

Woo-wee we are lounging! LOUNGE LOUNGE LOUNGE. That's how we roll here in Seymour, Indiana at Pat's G'mas house. Seems like enough stuff has gone down in the past Vlogs that a recap of sorts was (is) in order. Sooooooooooooooooooo.... here's the first 6 episodes of the BATTLEHOOCH Desolation Tour 2010 VLOG.

EPISODE #1 - Start of the Tour Interview


EPISODE #2 - Seattle, WA


EPISODE #3 - Portland, OR


EPISODE #4 - Eugene, OR


EPISODE #5 - Solar Living Institute - Hopland, CA


EPISODE #6 - San Francisco, CA and Los Angeles, CA

ADDED BONUS!!!

Here's the playlist from the BATTLEPOD (My Ipod) from our drive to Atlanta, GA to Seymour, ID. Ya know.... just incase you were wondering what we've been listening to on the road....

Playlist Order: AJ-Ben-Pat-Grant-Ryan-Tombo

Keep The Streets Empty - Fever Ray
Sinner Man - Nina Simone
I Don't Really Mind - Tame Impala
Suspicious Minds - Elvis Preseley
Spring Hall Convert - Deerhunter
Agoraphobia - Deerhunter

Forest Fire - Dead Kennedy's
Trill - Clipse
Sunshine Superman - Donovan
Zig Zag Wanderer - Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band
Heaven or Las Vegas - Cocteau Twins
Soldier's Grin - Wolf Parade

The Fall of Mr. Fifths - WHY?
Friend of the Devil - Grateful Dead
The Wayward Part 4 - Harry Partch
Freak out Requiem - Amon Duul II
Fluorescent Grey - Deerhunter
Rainy Day Women #12 and 35 - Bob Dylan

Flume - Bon Iver
Tropicalia - Beck
Bunch of Lonesome Heroes - Leonard Cohen
Seek and Destroy - Metallica
Intermede - Oliver Messaien
El Azteca - Man Man

I'm Your Man - Richard Hell and the Voidoids
1979 - Smashing Pumpkins
Zig Zag News - Sound Sandwhich
Hairy Candy - Tobacco
Sheer Heart Attack - Queen
Where It's At (Skanky Remix) - Beck

(Slight Change Up In Seating Order)
2nd PLAYLIST ORDER: AJ-Ben-Ryan-Grant-Tombo-Pat

Dancing Queen - ABBA
Skeng - The Bug
S.O.S. - ABBA
Looking at the Invisible Man - The Dead Weather
Hellhole Ratrace - Girls
The Attic - Van Dyke Parks

Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me - U2
(BEN WAS PASSED OUT)
Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) - ABBA
You Can Make It If You Try - Sly and the Family Stone
Pastime Paradise - Stevie Wonder
Dirty Diana - Michael Jackson

Jogo Da Calcada - Os Mutantes
Shake - Otis Redding
O Religio - Os Mutantes
Where I End and You Begin - Radiohead
People of the Sun - Rage Against The Machine
Cold, Cold Heart - Hank Williams

History Lesson, Pt. 2 - The Minutemen
(BEN WAS PASSED OUT)
Roulette Dares (The Haunt of) - The Mars Volta
Transformer Man - Neil Young
Smash - The Offspring
One of Us Cannot Be Wrong - Leonard Cohen

Master Song - Leonard Cohen
Travelin' Band - Creedence Clearwater Revival
Vanished - Crystal Castles
New Electric Ride - Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band
(...and then we arrived)

Mad Love for ya'll. Episode 7 is finished, I'm putting it up in a few days.

PEACE. (I've never felt like more of a hippie than I have since being in the midwest...)

Gonna Set My Soul On FIRE (BATTLEHOOCH U.S. Tour 2010 Part 7)

VIVA!

Its a wild thing...

...this whole "being away from California" thing.

Archaeology Johnson (Moi) is born and raised in California, dear readers. The longest I've been away from Cali was back in fall of 2007 when I traveled around Europe for 3 and a half weeks with my good friend Sofia Bell (who currently plays in the truly mind boggling Little Teeth). I've done some domestic traveling too. Always short jaunts, and mostly just visiting the kin in the east coast and occasional Nevada and New Mexico jaunts...

YES SIR, until this past July vast swaths of this fine fine country had remained unexplored/inexperienced by your humble Blog wrangler (Archaeology Johnson... moi).... and really pretty much the whole band (in various degrees).

All previous vlogs covered our last days on the West Coast (the west is the best) so all ensuing posts document the band's journey into new and wild frontier... ...seeing new parts of the country that we've never visited before. New experiences and adventures coming at us everyday.

(The last time I woke up in California was on my blow up mattress on the outside deck of the apartment inhabited by the band's good friends Sasha and John Paul (who play in the marvelous band "The Hot Moon")... It was a beautiful day (Of course. Ya gotta love San Diego in the summer, yo)... not too far from the ocean that you couldn't smell some salt... we had a delicious breakfast of homemade tacos and then gorged on free (FREE!!!!!!) gelato before saying good by to our sweet, sweet home.... good bye for Months..... AND Months.... AND Months...)

So now that I've rambled on (briefly) in a hyperbolic (superdupercrazylooper....) manner... here's some footage of us being stupid in Las Vegas.



(Gambling. Dancing to FUNKY MUSIC. Playing some jams in a sleak bar. Gambling.)

Vegas is enjoyable. Had some good times in Vegas every time I've gone. (Ya'll seen the Beatles Cirque de Soleil show? In a word... sakdfjyasdbfascjsydnsdfkjsfabsmdfas!!!!!!!! <------- TONGUES) Vegas is SUPER FAKE though. Not that that's even really a bad thing... more like it's kinda amazing. Like, Las Vegas shouldn't be where it is. It's in the middle of the Desert. There's no water. And yet through Sinatra, mobsters, vice and light bulbs it's become THE GODLESS MECCA OF SIN (or something.) A place to go for FUN FUN. A place to go to act like a FUCKING ANIMAL. I've always liked it. I've been there 4 times since I've been of proper Vegas age... and every time it mystifies me in some new way. Always looking for tangible soul in THE GODLESS MECCA OF SIN... always feel like I'm getting close BUT I still haven't found what I'm looking for... (hey, maybe that's why U2 filmed their video in Vegas... cosmic?(?).....)

So there ya go. As an added bonus I've added some super BOSS photos of us playing Frisbee and just looking HARD at a Nevada truck stop. If you've watched our vlog posts from this tour, you've probably noticed that we do a good amount of Frisbee playing. We're getting super good, yo. Getting dangerously good actually. Thinking about leaving behind this whole MUSIC thing and trying to make our money on the road hussling pick up games of DISC. We cannot be stopped.




(We're currently in Detroit Rock City, listening to Loretta Lynn, eating tamales and hanging out with the ever so charming Kim Paris, otherwise known as the booking agent for our Midwest/South/East Coast dates on the tour. She's groovy groovy groovy, to say the least)

Many Worlds Have Come Since I First Left Home (BATTLEHOOCH U.S. Tour 2010 Part 5)

A MOTHER Post!
(as in "don't turn it loose, cause it's a MOTHER!" as my man James Brown says)

So much activity recently. (you always say that, lame-o)

Right now, we couldn't be any more in the South, boys and girls. Yes, we are knuckle deep in the bible belt.... visited so many states that until now have existed only in abstract forms in my mind (Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, ETC!) Learning so much about this country... people... stereotypes... weirdness...

The spectre of religious madness and corrupt asshole police are always around, yet they have yet to interfere with the tour (knock on wood).

All this southern livin' is funny cause all the vlog posts I'm about to put up/talk about are from events from a month ago.... When we were still on the west coast (awww, the beautiful west, how I miss thee).

You wouldn't believe how hard it's been for yr humble blog wrangler to find a decent Internet connection to upload these videos, let alone write this very blog post. Quite difficult.... (oh, 1st world problems....) so, sorry for the lag since last post... (you always say that, lame-o)

Last time I posted, it was to tell tales of adventure in Portland, OR. The next 3 vlogs track our journey back home to SF and down to LA before we left the west coast and embarked on the guts of the tour. (We are NOW in the guts)

• Episode #4 - Eugene, OR.

We were only in Eugene for a little over 36 hours but it couldn't have been more action packed. We rolled into town on the late night tip and shacked up with our friend of a friend of a friend of a GIRLfriend, the lovely Francesca McCormick (what a babe). Being that we arrived very late, I chose to turn in while the rest of the boys went out to check out the town. I brushed my teeth, put on my jammies, whipped out the sleeping bag and pillow and literally had just closed my eyes when RRRRRRRRRRRRRRING my celly starts blowin' up. Wouldn't ya know it, it was the other battleboys with an important message! Apparently, the downtown area of Eugene was absolutely CRACKIN and the word was that we would be damn fools to not street perform. Next thing i knew (literally), I was standing on a street corner amidst a plethora of drunkards, piecechows and foxy ladies. We started our first song some time after 2:15am. Cars kept driving past and each time I was sure that it was a cop car coming to shut us down and throw us into the brig..... yet, it never happened (!!!!!!). As the set progressed, the whole downtown scene basically turned into a ridiculous dance party: bumpin, grindin, pop lockin, and there was even Russian dancing at one point! Tripped out weirdos headbanging! Boobies being flashed! Sexy glances this way and that.... it was literally insane. When we busted out our trusty cover of "billie jean", things just went OFF. It was literally a night I will never forget... so glad I didn't demand to be left alone so I could sleep. Episode 4 is a highlight reel (of sorts) from this event. The show was so hot, you must be careful that your youtube doesn't blow up. (okay, Archaeology Johnson... calm down, yo)

• Episode #5 - Solar Living Institute (SLI)

After a failed attempt at trying to street perform outside of a Ringo Starr concert (closest I've ever been to a Beatle, yo.) and a show with our good friends Dirty Wink (not to mention the most splendid night of romantic gallivanting I've had in recent memory... word up Allison, :) :) :)), we bid farewell to Eugene and started making our way back down the west coast. Before getting to SF we stopped off at the Solar Living Institute in Hopland, CA. Our drummer, Hubaloinz, went to SLI for a spell after he graduated from UCSC. He lived in a little trailer for a few months and learned the nitty gritty about green energy, climate change, etc. and so forth. (FUN FACT: It was here that he got the initial idea for our trusty battery bank.) Since we were more or less going to be going right past SLI on our way back to SF, we decided to stop off there and get some upgrades done to the battery bank.

Episode 5 has Hubaloinz explaining a little bit about the battery bank, Grant giving you a luxurious tour of the premisses of SLI and as an added bonus some footage of nearby Clearlake... which, in a word, is really FILTHY. (Like, FILLLLLLLLLLLLTHY.) Also, Pat slept in a house made of hay that night. The rest of us slept in a yurt. A good time was had by all. Don't use plastic. Long live the Sun.

• Episode #6 - San Francisco Visit/Los Angeles

The 2 or so weeks that we spent up north were textbook examples of perfect weather. Delightful breezes, comfy warm temps, blue skies, etc. and so forth. Utterly perfect, yo. So it was certainly a shock to come upon the Golden Gate bridge and see how completely smothered in fog our beautiful city by the bay was. It just looked like a huge, cloud shaped fat guy was sitting on the whole city... and it was COLD!!!! For the majority of our time up north I was wearing shorts and a tank top, yet as soon as I got to SF out came the sweatshirt and the knit cap. (love this town, no matter what) That night we played a "secret" show of sorts at one of the best sounding rooms in the city, the Rickshaw Stop. It was a mellow affair with some close friends, but damn good fun none the less. We shared the bill with New York's absolutely radiant Setting Sun and Quitzow (which is actually the same people in both bands, but don't tell anyone).
This show was also noteworthy because it marked the beginning of THE GABE LEG. THE GABE LEG was/is the section of tour where we had our invaluable sound engineer Gabe Armstrong joining us for the adventure, making sure we sound GOOD and STUFF.

After the show, we went back to the Battlepad for an after party with the homies. Now, the Battlepad is certainly still our home, but while we're gone on this 4 month adventure we have a bunch of people subletting. We may have only been gone for 2 weeks but the place was already VERY different looking once we came back.... Yet, it was still very clearly the same Battlepad. It reminded me of those dreams that you have when you go back to an old house from your past/childhood and you can tell it's the same place, but everything is moved around and a little off.... was a little bit trippy, if you ask me.
It was so nice to see our homies one last time, have a day off sitting on the couch watching tv (On Demand)... seriously love the BATTLEPAD... Clips from the Rickshaw Stop show and some of the after party are in part 1 of Episode 6.

...but we weren't meant to stay in SF for too long... the road beckoned. We got down to LA and played a show in a guitar shop in Venice, CA. This, unfortunately, was the first BAD show of the tour. Not so much that we played bad but I think pretty much everyone was bummed out during the show. The fellow (or should I say FUCKTARD) who owned the guitar shop refused to let Gabe do our sound, took fucking forever to set up the mics, didn't listen to our requests for what should be mic'd and then proceeded to a REALLY shitty job of mixing our band. UGH, he was just a smarmy little bastard of a man and totally took the wind out of our sales. Also, Ben's keyboard completely crapped out right before the show, which he was not too pleased with (in fact, this couldn't be more perfectly illustrated than the look on ben's face during the footage from Time Warp music in Episode 6. LOOK AT HOW FRUSTRATED THAT MAN IS!!!!! AHHHHHHH!!). The funny thing is that two separate videos of us playing that show wound up on Youtube within days of the show. Oh well.... so much for putting the best foot forward.
That night we fit a good chunk of the band into our friend Amelia's TINY little studio apartment (gabe and I slept in the battlevan)... probably the smallest place we've fit the band for a night sleep, yet. The next morning we were chilling hard and Gabe shot a video of me being super EMO and playing classical guitar improvs on a fire escape... (Gabe wanted the video to look French.... does it look French?)


Luckily, the next day's shows fared much better. First, we played a really fun street performing style show in the upstairs loft of Origami Vinyl in Echo Park and then we played a concert at the Hobbie Shop recording studio in Highland Park. Our set from the Hobbie Shop was also recorded on a 16 track mixing board and run through a bunch of sweet (sweet) analog gear. We are currently working at putting together the footage and recordings from this show for inclusion in later battleblogs... However, our musical abilities sadly don't translate over to competence with film editing software, so it's taking longer than expected. (EXCUSES EXCUSES.) Snippets from the LA shows are in Part 2 of Episode 6. (Seriously, yo. Check out ben's scowl. So HARD.)

You know the drill at this point. We're trying to crank this stuff out as fast as we can... thanks for reading... love ya'll.

If only you could hear the bugs in the Athens, GA night..... so lovely

I Think I Recall Portland...... (BATTLEHOOCH U.S. Tour Part 4)

MAD PRODUCTIVE.

(Setting records, boys and girls. 2 blog posts in (almost) one week.)

(Archaeology Johnson pats himself on the back)

Time for Tour Vlog Episode #3!!!

(Is the word "Vlog" lame? I think it's kinda funny... sounds like the name of a Russian butcher...)

As I'm writing this I realize that it's only been 2 weeks since the events captured in this VLOG/Post have happened. A short amount of time, yet the past few weeks have been so dense with adventures that I'm wondering if I can recall it all... EH! Lets just give it the ol' college try...

Episode #3 finds the Battlehooch crew returning to the beautiful and ideal city of Portland, Oregon after our successful jaunt in Washington state. We were in Portland for longer than we were in Washington so in turn the Vlog itself is a little bit longer. (Lots and lots of good stuff). The first cut of this episode was approximately twice as long as it is now... I had to cut a bunch of videos of various performances and different Piecechows and what not... leaving in just the cream of the crop.

SOME POINTS OF INTEREST!
(or NOTES ABOUT SOME OF THE LIVE SHOWS WE PLAYED, as seen in Video Blog #3:)

• Portland State University South Art Blocks - This time around to Portland marked our 3rd time playing on the outdoor stage in the South Art Blocks of Portland State University. This tree flanked and utterly splendid stage has become a highlight of our northwest journeys. The clip of us playing "Fishmilk" is from this show. Another reason why we love gigs at PSU is because we get to hang out with our friends from the SOUND HOUSE.

Our relationship with the SOUND HOUSE started a couple of years ago when we met a fellow named Joel in SF. He came upon us while we were street performing and we became fast friends. He worked for PSU and invited us to come up and play there next time that we were in Portland. We took him up on his offer and thus started a great partnership. Assisting Joel with the sound at our PSU shows are his good friends/house mates. This crew of gentlemen are all well versed in the ways of live sound (thus their house being called the SOUND HOUSE) as well as the subtle art of allowing Battlehooch to sleep on their floors/couches. On this tour we spent a solid chunk of time hanging out on their porch, shooting the bull and checking out the many trinkets that hung from the overhangs.

You can see us all hanging out by the BBQ in the Vlog. Exciting. Their neighbor Jim is a whole other story. His house is the one above that has the "Krusty The Klown" face painted on the garage door. We'll save an in depth look at Jim for another time... Probably it's own special blog/vlog combo... He'll blow yr mind.....
(SLIGHT TANGENT ALERT!) Another particularly funny thing about this recent PSU gig was the fact that in a nearby building a convention was being held for the association of medical illustrators. More importantly though, they had a BIG FAT BUFFET. (contextual note: In order to make ends meet on tour, each member is trying to live off of $100 a week for all our food/random expenses. In other words, we're often hungry.) So, most of the band decided to head in and mingle with the crowd... and grab some snacks.... this little (mis)adventure can also be found in the newest Vlog. Utterly Classic.

• "PDX Pop Now" Guerrila Show -

At the same time that we were rolling through Portland, the PDX Pop Now festival was revving up. The festival is a groovy annual soiree with all manner of bands playing at some outdoor stages in downtown PDX. We rolled up looking for an opportunity to set up and do some street performing but the vibe didn't quite seem right.... we didn't want to ENCROACH, dig? We were getting ready to head home when we bumped into the fellow who had booked us earlier in the week at Portland's own Mudai Lounge. It turns out he (THE BOOKER) also did some booking (BOOKING) for the festival (!!!!!!). We asked him what he thought about us setting up our street performing gear in between bands. He gave us the go-ahead. We made haste and set up on a loading dock behind one of the stages and played a quick 5 song set for a group of a few hundred people. A snippet of the (unfortunately poorly lit) show is also in this Vlog.

• Alberta Street Fair/Saturday Market - In Portland, on the last Thursday of every month there's a fatty art crawl/street fair on Alberta street. The scene is truly something to see: quirky folks selling their home made wares, street bands abound (Editors Note: Portland truly is the land of Street Performers. So many street bands, yo), and tons and tons of people looking for something to catch their eye.

We found a cool little spot amidst all of this and set up our gear. Shortly before we got started, we were approached by a group of "breakdancers". These "breakdancers" informed us that they were going to be setting up their "breakdancing" station in close proximity to us and, in all likely hood, drown us out with their P.A. system. We figured we'd give it a go anyways and started doing our thang. The set started well, we got a crowd going... you can see a fragment of a version of "Red Tide" from this performance in the Vlog. However, right at the end of "Red Tide" the "breakdancers" started "breakdancing" and basically totally took away out crowd. We were all but ignored from then onward. We were pretty damn super pissed yo. HOWEVER, a few days later we came across these same "breakdancers" at the Saturday Market. Like Alberta Street, the Saturday Market had a bunch of really wild street performers, crafts and other madness (Note: dig the 10 piece gypsy/pirate/punk band and blues guitarist who had a stump for an arm in the Vlog #3 ).

Also like Alberta Street, we came to the market to do our street performing set... but the "breakdancers" were already setting up their stuff near where we had signed up to play. But we had learned our lesson the last time we dealt with the "breakdancers", so instead of getting out the busking set up, we pulled out the FULL set up. Big amps and everything. (I've mentioned/included a video of us playing at the Market in a past blog post, but you can also just check it out here.) This time we were the ones that did the crowd steeling.

DON'T FUCK WITH BATTLEHOOCH.

(Look at these Thugs..... LOOK AT THEM!!!!!!)

• Fireworks Pizza (in Corvallis, OR) - this show is sure to go down in the BATTLEHOOCH LORE OF MEMORABLE SHOWS. After having a rip roaring good time in Portland, we cast off and headed south a little ways to play a show at Fireworks Pizza in cozy Corvallis. This was a sit down restaurant, boys and girls. Quiet, mellow and far from the type of places that we normally play (insane street corners, sweaty bars, tripped out hippie parties, the like...). On the posters that advertised our gig we were billed as "Folk Rock from San Francisco".

Right......

So we set up our quiet street performing set up (so as not to blast away the dinner patrons like we would with the big amps) and started in with "I'll Crawl Into Your Mouth", a new jam and one of our mellowest, quietest songs. Shortly after we finish it, the waitress comes up and says something along the lines of "you guys are a little loud, can you turn down a little bit?" This left the band a bit freaked out. We were supposed to play for 2 hours, but our quietest song was already too overbearing.... WHAT TO DO!?! So what did we do? Well, we did what any shape shifting orchestral rock band would do... we shifted shape. We took all our nutty ass material and just went ahead and played it smooth and mellow. Like Hall and Oates does the complete BATTLEHOOCH songbook (except "Fishmilk", I don't think I can even fathom what a smooth version of that would entail). If this is too hard to imagine, just check out the clip at the end of Vlog. Yes that is "Human Ram", yes Pat is crooning and yes a few feet away families were eating Pizza.

So much of the touring adventure falls through the cracks of my story telling.... the NBA JAM battles, the silliness during the HOURS and HOURS of driving we do, visiting Ben's cousin Asher and his epic band called "My Dads", the sheer joy of being able to sleep in a real bed for a few days when we stayed with "My Dads", the PDX food carts, visits with our good friends Jeff Green and Nate Goldman, "The Mist", the list goes on and on...
Yet, I suppose that's just the way it is... I mean, as I write this, I'm in an Executive Inn in Amarillo Texas, and only last night was I dancing with a belly dancer, slamming free pineapple juice, watching people willfully electrocute themselves and hearing the murmur of a shitty biker blues band butcher "Roadhouse Blues" in close proximity.

Too much is happening. Too much is happening.

Hopefully you can kinda get a sense of what it is that we're going through out here in Weird Ol' America... A Weirdness that only gets more elaborate and all consuming with each day and each new experience....

I'm Out. But just for a bit.

P.S. - we found Ryan's soul mate... or at least the residual echoes of their great explosion.... or something like that....

A PLAN TO STAY CLEAN AND ORGANIZED (BATTLEHOOCH U.S. Tour Part 3)

I'm currently in the "Old Man" (Official Title of BATTLEVAN 2.0).

Remember in the last post when I was lamenting technologies lack of dependability... and the general frustration it (Technology) had dispensed on me?

SCENE: (Dark interior)-(Crying noises)
Archaeology Johnson: "I can't blog cause my compy is FUCKED."
(Crying noises)

Well enough of that boys and girls, I'm hear to sing the praises of the 21st century and it's numerous technological marvels.

My Computer is working fine. (knock on wood)
I'm writing this blog in the van.
While it's driving.
Around these parts we call that AWESOME.

(QUICK, COOL STORY ALERT!)
We are speeding along into the night (9:01pm Mountain Time @ The Moment), and plan on staying in Moab, Utah for a couple days. We just stopped at an In and Out Burger and much to my delight and surprise, one of my favorite new songwriters, Avi Buffalo, was there as well. If you don't know who Avi Buffalo is, DIG this song. I LOVE THIS SONG.

Very pleased with the fact that he owns all our albums now. Nicest fellow too. It was almost like he was more excited to meet us, they we were him. Looking forward to jamming with him in the near future.

MOVING ON!

So, here's the FULL SEATTLE BLOG POST (with notes)

First off, if you haven't seen it, here's Episode 2 of the Vlog.


The first week of the Desolation Tour made us a bit worried. While we certainly enjoyed ourselves, played some great shows, made new friends and managed to save lots on food costs by cooking at friends/family houses, we also barely made any money. While the experiences certainly make the journey worthwhile, we also understand the reality that we need a certain amount of money in order to make a journey of this length sustainable. So, as we rolled into Washington state we had serious fund raising on our minds...

AND wouldn't ya know it, brothers and sisters, everything turned around in the most wonderful way.

First off, we went and visited Tom's sister Joanna in Olympia. This visit was extra special because Tom's Dad and Grandma were also visiting when we were there. You can see G'ma killing everyone at Gin Rummy in VLOG #2. We played a quirky show in the hallway of a practice space in downtown Oly... good times for sure, but like the previous gigs didn't lead to crucially needed funds. We also filmed our second Desolation Show in the forests around Jo's house.... (still editing it though... keep an eye out...)

But then things started to really turn around with our show at The Black Lodge.

For those who don't know, The Black Lodge is an awesome live/work space in Seattle. Super colorful psychedelic walls and is inhabited by a crew of some of the coolest chaps around . Twas our 3rd time playing there... probably our (MY) favorite Pacific Northwest venue. We played with our old friends GOD and they sounded great. Stoked. Good night of music AND we started to chip away at the deficit.

Dig some of these pictures. Feel the Vibe.


Feelin' good, we went off and sought to street perform in close proximity to the Capitol Hill Block Party. The Block Party is basically a couple of downtown blocks set aside for HIP concerts by HIP bands. We set up near one of the entrances of said Block Party and played for a few hours.

And I say without hyperbole that it wasthe most successful day of street performing we've EVER had.

It was just completely fucking ridiculous. No other way to state it. Lets just say that with that one day of playing pulled the tour/band out of the red (financially speaking). The whole evening culminated with an impromptu concert in a park, where we had a deliriously raucous dance throw down with a whole gaggle of new friends. Scenes from this are also in Vlog #2.

After the gig we were elated but exhausted. We planned on just heading back to the place we were staying and then calling it a night.
OH NO SIR. Before we new it, a bunch of our new friends hopped right into our van and demanded that we drive to the beach. So, about 12-13 people deep, we rolled out to Madison Beach at Lake Washington.
Appropriately, the band and our new friends went for a night swim. We swam out to a diving board in the middle of the lake. 20 feet high. No clouds. Full moon. Everyone took a jump. Twas absolutely amazing.

Love my/our life.

We did a little more street performing the following day, and we managed to capture a video of us doing "Piecechow"-era track, "Looks You Can't See".

We wrapped up our weekend with a brief set in a coffee shop and then headed back down to Olympia for a day off.

We were literally elated for days afterwards. Where we had been apprehensive and nervous before coming to Seattle/Olympia, we were now filled with supreme confidence and excitement! Thanks Washington State!

That's it for this edition of the blog, ya'll. But I promise more good stuff happens in the next episodes... Wait till you see the footage from our second trip to Portland.

Love you. See ya when I see ya.

(Utah is weird, yo)---------------------------------------------------------(Utah is Beautiful, yo)

(Bonus Bonus Bonus Bonus Bonus!!!!)

This one fellow really dug our set and then came up and asked if he could play Ryan's drum set. Normally, we don't let people play the set because most people who ask are morons who either hit too hard and/or don't know how to play at all. But I had a feeling about this dude. So we let him play. I think the video speaks for itself. Peace.

KEEP DISCO WEIRD!!! (BATTLEHOOCH U.S. Tour 2010 Part 2)

WHAT A LIFE I LEAD IN THE SUMMER!

There once was a band called Maus Haus. (was? is? was? is? DEFINITELY is. Love those dudes.)

This band wrote a really nice song called "We Used Technology (but Technology Let Us Down)".

I can relate to this song.

My computer had an epileptic fit and swallowed its tongue... Started yelling something about folders full of question marks.

It was mildly distressing. (understatement, yo)

So for the past week I had a FUCKED computer and thus my abilities to blog, make videos, make songs, etc. was basically totally compromised. THUS, 2 weeks without new blog stuff.

(SILVER LINING ALERT!!!)

I took my computer into the good people at the Apple Store in Pioneer Square in lovely Portland, OR. The girl who checked me in got a kick out of my headband and lucky feather. ANYWHO. Not only did the GENIUSES fix my computer.... but the GENIUSES did it for FREE.

Love it.

When I found out it cost NOTHING, I clicked my heals together and then went and played a very loud E major chord (in root position) on a piano.

So I am currently writing this blog entry on my own computer.....

...Inside a Yurt. A REAL, HONEST TO GOD YURT, yo. (We are currently at the Solar Living Institute kinda near Santa Rosa, CA. Yurts and Teepees ABOUND!)

Even though my computer died, we still filmed TONS and TONS and TONS of footage from the past couple weeks and we're gonna be putting it up over the next couple days. As I had mentioned in previous blog posts (here), we were doing a KICKSTARTER project to raise money to get the band some snazzy new cameras. Well good friends, we met our goal and then some! Now, pretty much everyone in the band has a camera/video device and we are trying to capture the seemingly never ending barrage of crazy wonder that surrounds us on tour.

(This is by far the most thoroughly documented adventure/tour for the band yet)

Seriously so excited to post some of the videos we're gonna post (...can you say "Human Ram: Lite Rock style in a small town restaurant"? Believe it, it happened. We have proof.)

But first here's all the videos (so far) that have been made by new friends we've met on tour. (Maybe you saw em on the ol' BOOKFACE)

The first video we're showing off actually just got posted today, and it's of us doing Human Ram/Somersaults at the Saturday Market in Portland, OR.

(BACK STORY: while staying in Portland, we attempted to street perform at the Alberta Street Fair. We played for about 35 minutes or something before a crew of break dancers, set up shot RIGHT NEXT TO US, turned on their loud ass P.A. system and drowned us out and completely stole our crowd. Needless to say we were bummed. A few days later, we bumped into the same crew when we went down to the Saturday Market to play. But we learned our lesson before and this time we rolled out our FULL ELECTRIC SET UP.

They HAD a crowd, but after two songs by us, their crowd became our crowd.

We leveled them. Sweet Revenge, yo. So Sweet.)

The next video is a little mini montage that a friendly chap made from one of our sets we did outside of the Capitol Hill Block Party in Seattle, Washington.



...and last, here's another video of us playing outside of the Capitol Hill Block Party, doing our new Sly and the Family Stone cover, "Stand".

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL. Here's some pictures of various Piecechows we've seen on the road.

WE SEE A LOT OF PIECECHOWS ON THE ROAD, boys and girls.

Here's just a taste:



MANY MORE TO COME!

(BONUS!!!!) here's ben sleeping.


Alright, now time to get cracking on putting together some videos. See ya in a bit.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I met Jimi Hendrix. AWESOME.

Footnote to FIRST TOUR POST (Playlists #1)

Here's some anthropological data.

The BACK STORY: while driving in the van on tour we listen to lots (to the millionth power) of music. For this 4 month tour, I filled up the empty space left on my 160G Ipod with music I've been meaning to listen to/music I feel like I should like/music that other people have recommended/etc. thus guaranteeing that our drives will always have unique and intriguing soundtracks.

The DATA:

Yesterday we had a monster of a drive: Davis, CA to Portland, OR. For the first few hours we just listened to radio because my Ipod mysteriously erased itself before we left. (Thank you APPLE.)

We also used Ben's mini-Ipod for a bit and listened to Aquemeni by Outkast (editors note: this album was thought provoking when contemplated in the context of WEIRD AMERICA) as well as some choice Motown cuts.

After getting dinner in Ashland, OR my Ipod had been fulled restored and we began passing it around and adding songs to the 'On The Go' playlist. The following is the play list we all created for the drive from Ashland, OR (depart approx. 9 pm) to Porland, OR (arrive approx 3 am).

Playlist order:
AJ
GRANT
BEN
RYAN
TOM
PAT

Round 1) No Theme/Random Songs

• Berkeley Mews - The Kinks (Note: Pat and I, Archaeology Johnson, kinda think this song is FUCKING AMAZING.)
• Computer Love - Zapp and Roger
• Octopus - Syd Barrett
• Solitude is Bliss - Tame Impala
• Only In Dreams - Weezer
• Everything Counts - Depeche Mode

Round 2) Theme: Britannia (2 full rotations)

• Instant Party (Circles) - The Who
• Melody - Serge Gainsbourg (note: Mr. Gainsbourg is DEFINITIVELY FRENCH. Grant was harassed ruggedly for this selection)
• War Pigs - Black Sabbath
• Cry Baby Cry (Anthology Version) - The Beatles
• Lauft.. Heisst Das es lauft oder es kommt bald.. lauft - Faust (note: a cursory look at the title will demonstrate that it is DEFINITIVELY GERMAN. Tombo suffered a similar fate as Grant.)
• Disorder (Live) - Joy Division
• Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious - Mary Poppins (note: I intended to pick "Feed the Birds", also from Mary Poppins, but the labeling was wrong for some reason. It was really intense hearing this song blast out of the stereo when I was expecting the other song. But still, any way you slice it, it doesn't get more British than this, does it? Commentary, Claire Lester?)
• I'm So Glad - Cream
• Jimmy - M.I.A.
• Suspended in Gaffa - Kate Bush (note: Pat just calls her "Bush". As in, "Oh, is this 'Bush' we're listening to? --- AWESOME")
• Anarchy in the U.K. - The Sex Pistols
• Rocket Man - Elton John

Round 3) Theme: Africa (note: this playlist in general was kind of an embarrassment. once again, Grant and Tom are the main culprits... something about "Chain of Fools" and "Black or White" in this context feels.... WRONG. We swear Africa, we really like you and do in fact think very highly of you.)

• Wubit - Mulatu Astatke
• Chain of Fools - Aretha Franklin
• Africa Tree - The Residents
• Tell Me Something Good - Lee "Scratch" Perry
• Black or White - Michael Jackson
• Timbindy - Ali Farke Toure

Round 4) Theme: Spooky

• From The Edge of the Deep Green Sea - The Cure
• On The Tweek Again - Primus
• Hesitation Blues - Ledbelly
• Synchronicity 2 - The Police
• Dancing Gods - Silver Apples
• O'Malley's Bar - Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds (note: Grant hated this song. The song was at least 17 minutes long. Grant kept saying, "Is this STILL Nick CACA?")

Round 5) Theme: The 1990s

• I Hate Myself and I Want To Die - Nirvana
• J.A.R. - Green Day
• Arc Arsenal - At The Drive-In
• Rhinosaur - Soundgarden
• Aneurysm - Nirvana
• Losing My Religion - REM (Note: Doubling the acoustic guitar with a mandolin makes it sound SWEET.)

After this point, we rounded out the drive by listening to the U.K. version of the first Clash album, Green River by Creedence Clearwater Revival and Highway 61 Revisited by Bob Dylan (starting from "Tombstone Blues").

Assignment:

WHAT IS THE PATTERN?!?!?!?