So, I've got a few moments before diving headfirst into work for the next 10-12 days, so I thought I'd write at least one more blog for the new year.

Thank you for Saturday. What a fucking show. Much love to the Have Nots, as well as the Star Fucking Hipster crew - really nice guys. The show was absolutely off the hook, It seems like every day show we get to play at the Middle East is an utterly packed madhouse. Much credit to Robbie (Brick by Brick Productions) for making this happen and his tireless promotion. What a raging success.

That being said, we're booking for the new year. If you want us, now is the time to make that happen. We're gigging our way to a new van, so, ah, toss us a goddamn bone. We miss the road and the road misses us. We're currently trying to get back to NYC and Philly, bare minimum. I know we're going to be in Upstate NY sometime in January with the Furiousity, more on that soon.

Alright, another full coffee cup, and off to work. Happy trails.

-Swagger

KYHHH (reprise) sale.

Hey everyone-

So it's official, we've re-released our most recent album, Keep Your Head Held High. To celebrate, we're going to sell it for $5 at this Saturday's show. I couldn't be more thrilled with how it came out. The whole point of this sale is pretty simple. Our van, our beloved Deon Primetime Vanders, is dying. We're slowly trying to make the money to replace it, cause we're all bitchass broke. So yeah, If you like what you hear on Saturday, pick up the new record - we'd greatly appreciate it. By you buying our shit, we can make more music and go back on tour.

Also, this is definitely our last show of the year. So come on out.

Not sure what's in the works for 2010. We're looking to put out an acoustic album, I know that much. A good bunch of traditional tunes, as well as some old favorites. No idea what the timeframe will be for that, but it's long overdue. Time will tell. Also, St. Patrick's day is coming! Obviously a high point in our year. It's the most wonderful time that absolutely no one remembers.

Anywho, enough rambling, there is work to be done. See you all Saturday.

-Swagger

Empty Bottles and Frayed Bows

So THAT was fucking awesome. Amherst was utterly ridiculous, thanks to the Time & Place crew, and everyone else out there - grand music, great band. Mallory was sick, and Niko is a fiend - hope his foot is okay. The Greyhound still is king of Public Houses in the state of Massachusetts, the Old Edison are still a bunch of charming drunks.

I need more coffee. Or a nap. Or a weekend to recover from this weekend.

You're coming to the Star Fucking Hipsters show on 12.12 at the Middle East Upstairs, all ages day show, right? Oh, good. Have Nots are also on the bill. Should be a good time.

Amherst and Wocester this weekend! w/Old Edison

okay. Facebook event for the House show in Amherst. Totally an amazing show put on by those swanky Time & Place kids. Our triumphant return to the 5 college area. You let us in, now we won't stay away!

Facebook event for the Greyhound Pub show in Worcester. Dude, it's the motherfucking Greyhound. We play for hours and hours. You definitely want to show up to this.

Okay, back to work. Also, don't forget our upcoming Star Fucking Hipsters show at the Middle East. 12.12 all ages matinee. Probably our last Boston show of the year. Brick by Brick productions rocks the goddamn house.

-Swagger

Snapper McGees on Wednesday, 11/25 - TONIGHT

We're playing the ever magical and wonderful Snapper McGee's. With the Jukebox Romantics. We're playing a long set, too.

So you should show up and drink with us. It's gonna be WONDERFUL. WONDERFUL I SAY!

Also, thanks to Gabe, the Elevens, Molly, Evan, Holly, and everyone else who made this weekend out in Northampton a wonderful time. We'll be back Dec 4th, it's looking. Providing the van actually decides to start, of course. (insert cursing here)

xo,
Swags.

PS: still no morning coffee. How I haven't murdered is amazing.
PSx2: I blame the swine flu we all got exposed to for messing up the date.

Northampton, MA - 2.21

We're playing out in Northampton, MA on Saturday over at The Elevens. This is our first gig out in Western MA in the 4 3/4 years we've been together as a band, so we're going to take the liberty of crashing out there, hanging out, and having a couple of drinks. I mean, damn. We've gone cross country and back, but still haven't played the five college area. What the hell?

Anyways, it should be a damn good time. Check it out.

-Swagger

Shows, Shows, Shows.

So, we have several shows coming up this weekend:

Thursday, 11/12 - Dover, NH @ Fury's publick house. Hi Dover, we miss you.
Friday, 11/13 - Allston, MA @ Unit 11. Hell yeah!
Saturday, 11/14 - Somerville, MA @ Somerville Writer's festival at the Armory

Revelry and celebration shall be had! Also, don't forget 12/12 with Star Fucking Hipsers. If all goes well, this should be the offical release show of KYHHH - Reprise.

-Swags

Thank yous are in order

Thanks to Erik Petersen and the Rest of the Mischief Brew crew, Meisce for being both awesome and as big of drunks as we are - Friday was spectacular. Thank you for Max, Sophia Conner and anyone else who lives at 3 Islington Terrace, you made the night possible. What a night!

Also, I'd love to send out a big thank you to the kids over at ABC No Rio for being fucking amazing hospitable people. Some of the best voicemails ever!

Next, I'd like to thank Greg, Jack, and Lucky and everyone else in the World / Inferno Friendship Society for being awesome and fantastic drunks. Real sweet people who deserve what attention they're getting right now. Again, thank you for the hospitality

Finally, Thanks to Robbie from Brick by Brick Productions for adding us to the All Ages Star Fucking Hipster / Have Nots matinee show on 12/12. You're the man!

Okay, I'm going to go back to celebrating my 30th birthday by mailing CDs and more stuido work. Later, fellas! See everyone Friday.

-Swags

KYHHH - Reprise (December 2009)

We are re-releasing our most recent album, KYHHH. Why? long story. The short version goes like this. It needed more awesome. Now it has it.

It's getting remixed and remasterd by me. I hope to have it done by December. Once it's done, it will be included with any copies of KYHHH people buy, and once we've got enough money, we plan on pressing them ourselves.

On our myspace player, I've posted Moments Like These, and by the time you read this, the title track. Enjoy.

Alright, back to work. PS, don't forget about our Mischief Brew show on Friday at 3 Islington Terrace here in Allston, MA. We hope to see you there. Show starts early, 6:30pm. Bring money for the touring bands. Bring whiskey for us.

-Swagger

Van Party, Mischief Brew, Hallomas

Last night, we went to a van party up in Haverhill MA, and sporadic moments of music happened. Extra credit goes to Kevin, Will & Richie for hitchhiking up and buying a case of 40s. And Lizzi* for driving people. Much love to the Pity Whores, FC, oh hell, everyone who showed up for that hilarious drunken shit show. We love you guys so very, very much.

That being said, an Acoustic show with Mischief Brew has just been announced for this Friday, October 30th. 3 Islington Terrace, here in Allston, MA. Around 8pm I think? All Ages, Free, save a collection for the touring bands. Here's a link to the facebook event. Add us on there, you miserable fucks.

Also, I know that at least Annie, Chestnut and myself are going up to ABC No Rio for the Mischief Brew show there, and then Hallomas that night. It should be a GRAND time. You should try to find us, and more importantly, buy us drinks.

-Swags

*Lizzi informed me that it's Lizzi and not Lizzy.

Pity Whores and Faulty Conscience!

Hey! Come see us at Anchors up in Haverhill, MA w/ The Pity Whores and Faulty Conscience! ALL AGES! October 24th, 6pm. Also playing are Flatout Jones and the Down and Outs.

-Swags

Pictures! Pity Whores! MASKS!

So for some strange reason, after a night of heavy drinking (Hey, it was Growler practice, complete with alumni), I woke up at 6AM. And I feel pretty damn good, too. I almost feel obligated to go for a run at this point. But whatever, there are more important things on hand:

http://www.nicoletammaro.com/

Pictures are up from the Superpower CD release show. Thanks Nicole! We fucking heart you. Duh.

This weekend, our darling Annie is having an art showing:
Saturday, October 10, 2009 - 7:00pm at the Dark World Gallery 179 Grafton St. Worcester, MA. Most of us will be here, so you should be too.

We're playing with the Pity Whore, Faulty Conscience, Flatout Jones and the Down and Outs at Welfare Records/Anchors Up on Saturday October 24th. ALL AGES! And yes, I just had to check our myspace to know when that show was.

I'm out! I should make something of this day before I decide to go back to bed.

-Swags

PS:

The Last Few Weeks

Hey Everyone-

So we've been busy as shit the last few weeks. In a nutshell: Punk rock, alcohol abuse, and bad tattoos. I can't speak for anyone else in the band, but I can say I've been living like a disaster and couldn't be happier for the fact.

I should have picked up liquor before beer o'clock. Goddamn it. Anyways...

So about a week ago, we were fortunate enough to have our friends from Gainesville, FL up here for a show at our favorite dive bar, the Midway Cafe. It was a 4pm Matinee show, which means everyone was shattered by about 6. Big thanks for everyone who came out to this, and made No More feel quite at home in Boston - they said it was the best show of tour so far. Boston Jolly Pirates tore shit up, and Squally kicked things off right. And the best part of doing an early show was the epic afterparty back at the Growler house in Allston. Did I say epic? Maybe I meant felonious. Well, the cops only came once, and no one was -too- savagely beaten, so whatever. Much love to the Old Edison for their inevitable kitchen set, and we hope that Lorena had a fantastic birthday.

Then last night, we got to play the Superpower CD release show - Dave Tree is at it again, and as great as ever, if not better. Both the Ashers and Dead Friends sounded great, too. And we got free beer from PBR. WE GOT FREE BEER! Of course, we kept emptying the cooler faster than they could stock it, but fuck, are you really that surprised? Thanks to Bekah and LauraMom for having us on the bill. Big fuck you to the asshat who wouldn't let us park behind the club unless we paid him $25. Fuckwad. The ever lovely Nicole Tammaro should have pictures up on her site, www. nicoletammaro.com, sometime soon.

Alright, that's all I've got for tonight. Been working on some new demos, I'm hoping to have the first 5 songs demoed out for the band in the next couple of weeks.

peace,
Swags.

itunes, amazon and more!

Our music is now available on i-tunes, amazon, rhapsody, and anywhere else you buy your mp3s online. Go fetch! We need the money for a new van, and a new record.

xo,
Swags

PS:

How Philly went and living the poor life

Hey all!

cnut here again. So, going down to Philly was definitely a fun time. I rode down with the guys from Refuse Resist, 5 1/2 hours in the car, past NYC, over all the cool bridges, past that giant cemetery, then onto the Jersey Turnpike, where the counties are clearly delineated by the particular smell they emit.

But then we were there! First stop: South St. From what I understand, South St. was kind of Philly's Haight/Ashbury without so many hippies. A kind of cultural gathering point for the freaks. Always my kind of place to start with in a town. I had been to South St. once before, when the Growlers went through Philly in June on tour. We stopped into a tattoo shop where the RR boys were visiting a friend from the Thorp board, then we dropped by Repo Records - the Growlers CD's are still on sale there! - for them to leave some copies of their disc. If you're in Philly, go grab copies of both!

Then, we popped around the corner to Gianna's for cheesesteak (with the whiz, not any of that other shit, do it right) and giant fries. Love this place, it's good food for not too much money, the guy behind the counter is obviously old school punk, and they have veggie and vegan options. Also, any band that comes through, if you have a flyer, they want you to sign it and put it up on their wall.

From there, it was time to actually go to the house show we were playing. It was in south Philly, not sure what street or if there's a certain name for that neighborhood, but the house venue is called The Black Sheep. We had a GPS with us, so finding our way to the place wasn't difficult, but when we came to the street were needed to turn down to drive the last half mile to the show, like 14 cop cars materialized out of nowhere - not on us, but next to us. There was a very overgrown vacant lot at the corner we were supposed to turn on. We saw this blur of a guy dart into the lot and then there were cops leaping out of their cars, drawing their weapons and rushing headlong into the overgrowth. We could hear, "Shots fired!"

So, we went around, realized they wouldn't fuck with us for an illegal right turn right this second, found an alternate route to the house show. The street of houses looked like small post-war row housing - really small-looking houses all attached on the sides. You could see the living room half-full of punks from the other side of the street. It was pretty cool - some of the kids in the punk house were the only white faces to be seen on the street. Everyone on the stoops around the house were drinking and having fun and started asking us if there was a party when we walked into the house with our instruments. The answer of course was yes. =)

I went downstairs to check out the basement where we'd be playing, and it smelled like someone had been painting. We talked to the guy who lived there and he said it was a big accident where his landlord told him the unused heating oil container was empty. He sawed through it and it wasn't empty at old. Stinky but at least it makes you have a headache. They opened a window and used a fan and it got slightly better, but really it just added to the surreality of the whole night anyway.

The first couple of band, I can't remember their name, was good fast punk. I was still mostly cheesing bowl hits and beers upstairs during most of their set, I'm sad to say. But it was cool, the kids in Philly were mad nice and I even saw someone that I haven't seen since I was 16 or so in Harvard Sq. Very neat. Then Blood Bound (I think I have that name right) played and they were sick. Really awesome folks in the band, really awesome band. Again, fast punk, great songwriting.

Then The Boils played. It was my first time to get to see them play live, and worth the wait. The Boils don't play very many shows, so it was especially a treat to play their hometown with them. They are a tight, solid band, even if they do like sports. =) It was great to see a scene that likes where they're from. It reminds me of Boston, where we love our city. These Philly kids had a pride in being part of a scene that produces great bands and insane house shows. It's a long tradition and from what I saw that night, it's not going anywhere anytime soon.

Finally, Refuse Resist got to take stage. They started with 3 songs I hadn't been told to practice, so I got to kind of stand on the side of the stage and just jam out. But then we hit the stuff that I knew and we cranked it up. Playing bass is a lot of fun. I'm not going to switch to it or anything, but it was cool and I'd like to do it again. I remembered most of most of the songs. The kids danced. We got headaches from the fumes, but it was worth it.

We rode out of Philly, on our way back to Boston at about 12:30 or so. I slept most of the way back, except for waking up long enough to make witty relevant comments (FUPA) and then back to sleep. Made it home about 7 am, slept till 2:30 pm, then stayed awake for about 36 hours with no drugs except Mountain Dew.

Since then, I've spent my week looking for a job (yuck!), practicing songs that the bands I'm in play, and trying to live without spending money.

Signing off for now. The Growlers are in CT on Saturday night at Cherry St. Station - if you're within striking distance, we'd love to see you out.

cnut

cnut - off to Philly

So, no Growlers shows this weekend, as I have two fill-in gigs with other bands. The first was last night at The Middle East Upstairs. I played guitar for Suzuki Smith, opening a show with The Acro-brats, 0700 Club, Dirty Tactics and Angry Samoans! It was a lot of fun.

Now, I'm up at 7:30 am in the morning after a show night so that I can get another couple of hours of practice in on bass before driving to Philly with Refuse Resist to play a house show with The Boils.

Wish me luck and be sure to get out to our upcoming shows. We have even better things planned for next year!

cnut

Upcoming Shows! Most of which are all ages...

9.26.09 Midway Cafe (Jamaica Plain, MA) ALL AGES MATINEE w/Boston Jolly Pirates, No More, Kill Conrad

Do I really have to tell you how awesome the above show is? Seriously. You ain't gonna see a mess like this anytime soon. No More is Jen and Sterlo from club 1982 in Gainesville's band, they're fucking awesome. But so are Allston basement kings BJP and Kill Conrad. The awesomeness of this show might have already exceeded fire capacity of the Midway.


10.24.09 Welfare Records (Haverhill, MA) All Ages

Dude, we're playing with the Pity Whores, Faulty Conscience, Flat Out Jones, and the Down and Outs. At Anchors Up/Welfare. This will be fucking crazy. Come experience the sleeze in ways only Haverhill and the Pity Whores can bring.


11.14.09 Somerville Writers Festival (Somerville, MA) acoustic, all ages

We play in between the writers and the intermission, and probably will do a set after everyone is done speaking so we can get shitfaced with a bunch of fucking brilliant people. I'm probably going to get one of my books signed - Rick Moody wrote the forward to my Amy Hempel anthology.
http://www.heatcityreview.com/somervillenews.htm for more information.


11.25.09 Snapper McGee's (Torrington, CT)

THIS PLACE IS AWESOME AND OH MY GOD WE LOVE TRAVIS AND DAN AND EVERYONE DOWN THERE. ahem.


Okay, I'm going to go back to being neurotic and annoying Squall.
Xo,
Swags.

New Blog

Alright, I've decided to move our newsfeed over here to blogger.com. Hope you enjoy!