roman candle

2006-10-19T21:21:00.000-07:00

2006-07-25T23:24:00.000-07:00

Oub weblog has moved to our new website. Please drop by anytime.

with warm regards, Roman Candle

www.romancandlemusic.com

2006-07-13T19:14:00.000-07:00

Last night Nashville was a busy city. Rolling into town in our Burgandy van (dubbed Jack Johnson for the "flip-flop wearing good feeling" he/she inspires) we had plans for a sound check, maybe a burrito, Logan was even day-dreaming about spending way too long strolling the isles of the drum store while the rest of us sweated off lbs, in the van.... But before all of this could happen we had to meet some celebrities and watch some car theft happen at the BP. Skip and Timshel dorked out heavy when we pulled up to Grimey's and the Danielson Familiare was packing up after their in-store upstairs . We immediately approached their van and bumbled out something suave and uber-cool like "you guyzes music is , like, SOOOO amazing." He dug it. If you haven't heard their new album "SHIPS", check them out.
And the BP. Nick and Timshel went for a pre-show deodorant run and found more then they were expecting. Suspicions should have risen when we noticed that it was late enough (what?) or shady enough outside for them to lock the front doors and only allow you to request your purchase from a small hole in the plexi-glass to the right of the door. Just about the time that all of these "details" registered Nick heard the lady behind the counter say to a man behind him "That man is stealing your car." Sure enough, the man's blue Toyota truck was being driven out of the parking lot by someone else. It became obvious to us all (most unfortunately to the man in the truck) that the straight shift was a "surprise". The man made it across the main street and even managed to back it up with the owner hanging through the driver window punching his head off before he escaped out the passenger door, paused to wave at the police car and darted for the woods. A helicopter was involved.
Thank you so much to everybody who came out for the Nashville residency shows. You all came out with zeal, filled the room to the seems and rep-rezented, Big Time. We had a great time playing The Basement and look forward to seeing you all again next time we are back in town. We'll keep you posted.

2006-06-28T14:41:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome to Nashville. We just got to the hotel after staying up late last night recording in Wilkesboro and alternating naps during our six hour trip,...just in time for a little FIFA. Real quick we wanted to post some pictures of the cd release show in Chapel Hill. More will be coming as well as a live stream clip from the Pourhouse ( we are just trying to organize some killer graphix by way of Dr. Matheny) so keep looking but for now here is a sample of what's to come. Enjoy!

2006-06-25T22:15:00.000-07:00

We are all doing our best here to rest up after a weekend full of shows. After the celebrations on Thursday night we played an in-store at Schoolkids in Chapel Hill and then we finished off the weekend in Raleigh where we joined our friends the magnificent Patty Hurst Shifter at The Pourhouse. Thank you so much to everyone who came out to single and multiple shows throughout the weekend. It was quite a way to celebrate and we thank all of you for coming out and putting on your party hats. We will be posting pictures from all the shows in the next couple of days so keep your eyes out for back flips and pyrotechnics. They happened so quick……
Also squeezed into the weekend we managed to pick up the phone around 12:30 a.m and hear Thad on the other line requesting Skip and Timshel back over at Logan and Nick’s to write a Christmas song for the dB’s Holiday album due out this 2006 Christmas. This was Saturday? By some sort of miracle the song was finished by 3:30 (despite multiple breaks by every band member to listen to/read aloud Wesley Willis Lyrics) and recorded the next morning before Thad headed home to Nashville.
This week we are very excited to be heading to Alabama and back to Nashville for our second night at The Basement. We will definitely be pulling some rabbits out of some hats so rally the troops and head on out.
http://www.nashvillerage.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060622/RAGE0202/606220326.
Most exciting for us though we will be stopping mid trip in Wilkesboro to get some recording done for Songs For An Empty Room.

2006-06-24T09:01:00.000-07:00

We wanted to write a quick hello to say thank you SO much to everyone who came out to help us celebrate this past weekend. We had such a good time and it was so much fun to see everyone out to celebrate with us. Thank you for making drives and putting on your party clothes, Ya’ll looked fiiiiine!

2006-06-07T16:39:00.000-07:00

What is amazing about rock and roll bands is that they can do ridiculous things and blame them on "the crazy life", for example...labelling the shows that you are about to play in a few days with dates from a previous month. We DID play a smoking show with Seth Kauffman and The Real Mothers in Asheville this past weekend, during this very month of June that we are currently living in right now. So... sorry for the miscommunication. loco. Thanks so much to everybody who came out anyways (how did you know?!) and for all of you all let me say this..HOW ABOUT THE REAL MOTHERS?!! Our pants have been officially blown off everyone. The show was incredible with everything from multi-instrumentation to live romance novel reading to MAD maraca/bongo playing. thank YOU to Seth and his Mothers.
The main event as it stands right now is our high security secret plans and rehearsals for the cd release party. We can't even really talk about it. So of course we thought we'd blog about it. s-yyyyke.
See you Hot-lantians this weekend,

2006-06-02T10:09:00.000-07:00

LAST SECOND SHOW CONFIRMATION!!!

Party People...
We confirmed a show at the Evening Muse in Charlotte for this Saturday (5/3). If you're around you better be there. We just got back from AMAZING shows in NYC and Nashville. Thanks so much to everyone who came out for those. Also this sunday 5/4 we are playing the Grey Eagle in Asheville. We're really looking forward to seeing all of you up there. This will be the maiden voyage for SS Roman Candle in Asheville...we're excited about it!!

xo,
-RC

2006-06-02T10:07:00.000-07:00

Friday, June 02, 2006

Nashville to Chapel Hill

Before we forget we wanted to give a shout out to all of the new inhabitants at 6** Metropolitan Ave., Brooklyn for letting us come in with our blow-up mattress brigade and sleep over after our show. We all suffered through that night of no air conditioning together, flat on our backs with mouths open, trying not to move. Ever-clever Nick outsmarted us all and moved to the roof.
Also, one detail that can NOT be left out of our NY trip is the amazing breakfast we had at The Maritime where Keegan keeps the peeps in check. If you are from the area you already know and if you are not, get in there for breakfast and get ready to have your face blown off. We had to be carried out on carts.
Last nights show in Nashville was totally Ry-CHUS. Thanks so much to all of our new friends that came out. We were so honored to share the bill with Miss Dawn Kinnard and Thadonius Punk. This was our first time hearing Dawn and she took our breath away..

Also, a big shout out to Anonymous Bandmember for farting in the van during a heavy rainstorm while he was in the very back seat and all of us were trapped in the rest of the seats, with the windows up.

And last but not least, at the request of that lady in the strappy platforms and velvet windsuit at the Sheetz in West Virginia, Nicks digits are on the way.

2006-06-02T10:03:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

New York to Nashville

Hello from Nashville and thank you so much to everyone who came early and stayed late to watch us be Sparrows with Keegan and then again to play as Roman Candle late later. The shows were so much fun and we loved seeing everyone..props for support. If you missed the atomic 'splosion we will be up again in July for similar family antics and we hope you can get it together by then.
Nashville tonight for everybody so hopefully we will see you out there. Good talk.

2006-05-22T19:21:00.000-07:00

All of our fans’ suspicions were confirmed today. We’ve been hearing for months that Usher (author of yeah, etc.) has been keeping up with your pals at roman candle to find where we shop, what we roll, etc. well today in Atlanta, Usher himself came out of hiding at a clothing store in little 5 points. He followed us into several clothing stores (must have admired our ridiculously modern and trend-setting band fashion sense) and eventually forced us to loudly reject a photo-op. He tearfully returned to his Ferrari.

We have blown through Columbus, GA and Atlanta so far this weekend and thanks to everybody who came out because the shows have been fantastic. Another shout out for Java Jive. We waited the 50 minute drive from LaGrange on Sunday Morning just to get in there for those tasty omelettes. Apparently the Veggie is the best way to go (Nick) although anything with a bisquit on the side will do.
A very different kind of shout out for the Candleberry Suites which provided us with Sean of the Dead-like delinquents welcoming us up the drive and keeping a good eye on our van throughout the night. In their favor though, they also provided was a double showing of Return of the King. Usher wishes.
The picture above is us outside Krispy Kreme just before we got the customer of the month award.

2006-05-14T22:29:00.001-07:00

The writing to the left means thanks in a language none of us can identify for certain. However thank you is the main message we have for you tonight. First off Happy Mothers Day - and obviously thanks to all the mothers out there (and in roman candle). Also - thanks to all who traveled near and far (people from CA, OR, OK, NY, Scotland and London were in attendance last night) to get your hand stamped at the 506 last night. We haven't had that much fun making music with friends in a long time, and we would like to thank all who came out to join us. What an honor. we had so much fun. We're such fans of Thad and Keegan that it was even more fun to watch their shows from the stage as it was to play. If you have been living in a hole and have never heard these individuals, do your self a favor and check them out. It was amazing last night to hear people singing along to unreleased songs by Thad, Keegan, and us. The internet is a weird an fantastic place.
For all you New Yorkers, we have added a new show at the Sin-e Club in the East Village (150 Attorney St.) on May 29, with Keegan DeWitt opening. As far as performing as "the sparrows" we will undoubtably be up to the same mischief we were last night. If you know anyone in Georgia, let them know that we're coming to blaze a hot trail of something through their town this week. we are at the Loft in Columbus on Saturday and Smith's olde Bar in Atlanta on Sunday night. We also added a new show in Asheville NC on June 4. we will be accompanying Seth Kauffman and the Real Mothers (connection to Mother's Day? maybe.) on their cd release party.

2006-05-11T20:38:00.000-07:00

Mahalo Nashville. We want to send a big thank you out to everybody who came out to the Exit Inn last night for the show. It was a great room and we were very exited to see so many old and faces. Shout out to The Hip Zipper in East Nashville.. they got major bling at that placce. You should all check it out. We played a great show last night, had margaritas on the Pat-yo, and then headed to Thad’s house to meet the most amazing little Martin guitar to hit songwriting history. It is a beaute, given on permanent loan to Thad from a friend and, as Thad would say, has songs pouring out of the sound hole so quick you have to grab them all and stuff some back in there. This was definitely a highlight of the night and we are VERY eager to get that thing out of the case back in Chapel Hill and put it to use.
We drove the first leg of our trip back last night reaching the Biltmore Estate somewhere near 5:00a.m. just early enough to brush our teeth, pull up the covers, roll over, and then get dressed again. Thanks to Nick, we missed our wake up call but made it t the phone for his staggered announcement that it was NOT 7:30 but was instead 8:30 and would we like to meet down by the van and get going. We DID miss the breakfast buffet but we DIDN’T miss the weirdo guy floating like a merman in the hotel lobby pool with a train of M. Boltron locks and a speedo. Good morning.

2006-05-10T11:00:00.000-07:00

And we are on the road again, trying to get back to center and cause some electric mayhem. Tonight we are in Nashville playing the Exit Inn with a bunch of bands with names like "rain dancer" and "magic flute parade" but we are VERY excited to be here and we expect to destroy. Above and beyond we are most excited to head back to chapel hill for the craziness that will happen on Saturday at the 506 with Thad and Keegan. I f you don;t know about this than you should wake up and sniff it because this show is bound to Blast off. Keegan DeWitt is flying in from NY for two nights (Wilmington and 506) of head spinning, mouth dropping , but shaking music. We have been pumping up for weeks for these shows. Skip is on the Metrex and Nick and Timshel have been drinking nothing but Muscle Punch.
By the way, Jeff Crawford is revisiting his alma mater this weekend. He has his "mouseters" you know.
Great talk. See you out there.

2006-05-09T00:28:00.000-07:00

Why modern radio is a-ok.
The following “story behind the song” portion of our broadcast was recently written by Skip in response to the emails we get asking when and where we were when we wrote this or that song. The one we’ve been getting the most emails about recently is “why modern radio is a-ok”

Skip: This song was accidentally inspired by Thad Cockrell (as many things are). Thad was over at our house one night checking his email and Timshel and I were making supper for the three of us. We had been listening to a bunch of records, and I put on the Neil Young’s “Comes a Time.” We’d never listened to this record with Thad before, and as soon as track one, side one came on, Thad froze up. He looked pretty confused, and a little misty if you know what I mean.
He said “Oh what are you doing? You can’t put this thing on without giving me at least a week’s warning – I fell in love to this record (!)
It turns out that this was Thad and his special lady’s main album -- The same special someone who was the eventual broken-heart-inspiration behind the lion’s share of songs on Stack of Dreams and Warmth and Beauty. Jackpot. As far as insensitive moves go, I had rolled snake eyes and not known it. Needless to say I put on something else. We felt pretty bad about the whole event, and probably made some lame jokes about how many couples we’d known that had fallen in love to Cinderella and Scorpions tapes (Ourselves included in this list naturally).
A couple of weeks later I was brushing my teeth and I got this song in my head. I don’t remember exactly what I had been thinking, but probably something along the lines of how emotionally stable Thad would be if he only listened to the Z100 radio stations. Anyway I wrote this song that night and played it for Thad that weekend at one of our shows. Lyrically, it is a recollection of a conversation between two friends. If you have been coming to our live shows, you might have notices the lyrics have changed a little since we recorded the demo that is on our myspace page.
Thanks to all who write in and ask about these songs. we'll post more of these as the record release approcahes.

2006-05-01T22:40:00.000-07:00

All the way to merlefest I don't think i'll miss you much. Three knockout moments we need to share with the people from this weekend are (we only got to go for sat. and half of sunday) - 1) sitting at the foot of the cabin stage drinking a hot coffee hearing Gillian Welch and David rawlings sing a new song of theirs (in unison!) for an amazing 5 minutes. Then hearing them cover "White Rabbit". youch. 2) watching all the Cailtin Cary Thad Cockrell sets we could manage. Having just returned from their european tour, they were in fantastic form, each show topping the last - fantastic-o! As usual we highly recommmend that Begonias record to everyone and EVERY one. If you' haven't heard it yet you can either go get it now, or wait until David Lynch puts "please break my heart" in his next movie, and then it will be very chic to go listen to "that begonias record that was underappreciated back in 2005". 3)Watching Doc Watson and the Nashville Bluegrass Band play their gospel set on sunday morning. Doc is 83 and still, without question, plays a set that never fails to silence and inspire the crowd and every other musician who has played the stage during the weekend. Incredible and beautiful and always the biggest treat of Merlefest. All in all we had a great weekend and even manage to squeeze in a minute or two for some pics with a couple unruly fans (see pic). Thanks to all who came out to Tyler's to see us play with THe Old Ceremony. We were very excited to finally get to play with TOC. Django (Haskins) is a primo singer and songwriter (a rarer combination than one might think), and the band he has gathered is such an amazing group of musicians. It goes without saying that they were fantastic and won many friends.

2006-04-25T22:15:00.000-07:00

Greensboro NC. the Gate city. We just got back from playing a brand new venue called the Flying Anvil with Patty Hurst Shifter (who have a fantastic review-photo in this month's UNCUT magazine - look out). We were the 2nd band ever to play there, and the first band to knock over both drums and fancy overhead mics onstage during a song (sorry, Skillet). To anybody who lives near the g-boro area, we at roman candle suggest you get out and support this club. It's a good place and it's run by good people. By the way we will be playing there again on May 25 and we'll be playing with Patty Hurst Shifter again on June 24 at the pour house in raleigh. The crowd this evening (as well as roman candle) was fortunate enough to have Mr. Thad Cockrell grace the stage to help sing "i can't even recall". Though we are not playing merlefest this year properly, some of us will be up there - watching Gillian Welch, and others -- but especially to see Thad and Caitlin (Cary) take over the main stage on saturday.
Special thanks this special evening go out to Kent Bennett for running a knockout light show (we thought we were opening for Whitesnake!) and to Skillet for grabbing our box of cd's - after we left them at the venue, like the absolute business professionals that we are.

2006-04-23T22:04:00.000-07:00

Athens to Charlotte, etc. I dig a poodle by Charles Haltry on the devee. Phase 1 in which roman candle covers I dig a pony Saturday night in the McGlohon Theater in Charlotte. But before we get there let's enjoy a quick recall of the 40 watt. Our first time to play in Athens and man did it rain. Not only weatherwise, but also in a figurative sense - Figurative in the same sense that Phil Hoffman's character (in Along Came Polly) is making it rain while playing basketball. - the rest of the movie is forgettable, but this scene of trash talk is primo). Our number one fan for the evening went unanimously to our new friend Sarah who drove six hours from jacksonville FL to see us play -- and had to drive back for work in the morning. wow. we were very grateful for this public display of affection (and as if that wasn't enough to win the green jacket, she made that whole trip only because she is a dedicated my-spacer who happened to discover our band while looking for new music on myspace). Pictured right is us with Sarah backstage at the 40 watt. What an amazing room by the way. Needless to say, we had a great time playing a couple shows with Mr. Will Hoge & friends. We woke up saturday morning, found out that "The Grill" in Athens only serves breakfast until noon, and tried to learn "i dig a pony" in the van ride from GA to Charlotte.
As for the Beatles Tribute on that night, it was an amazing thing to witness. The "green room" for the 30+ musicians who were performing in the 4 hour spectacle, was one of the happiest little dressing areas we've ever seen. People standing in corners quietly practicing "she's leaving home" on the ukelele, or strawberry fields on one acoustic guitar. It was an unbelievable testament to how amazing that body of music is. For all you Thad Cockrell - Caitlin Cary fans out there (and boo to you all who are not), they are back in the country as of today from their european tour. Among other things, they played a sold out London show at the borderline and taped a BBC2 special with bob harris that will air this thurdsay on radio 2. and finally The Old Ceremony played a premium acoustic set - interview on wxyc tonight. we will be supporting them at the tyler's outdoor show on Sunday. food, prizes, kids under 10 get in free...

2006-04-21T17:34:00.000-07:00

Last night Nick was sleeping soundly, a smile spread calm across his face, dreaming about the flames that flew from the Chatanooga stage last night. The rain had stopped, all five band members were tucked in to rest (Logs and Nick had lost the coin toss and were respectably sharing a pad), not a creature was stirring. Until Logan got friendly. First a single Logan arm was thrown across the shoulders of an unsuspecting Nick. Nick’s eyes dart open. He laughed to himself and wiggled Logan’s arm back to his side of the bed. A moment passed. And then, a second snuggle attempt. The arm again, this time more gently, with intent to spoon. Nick laughs harder and wiggles free for the second time. Several moments pass and Nick is almost back to sleep. And then the King Tut. The tip top of them all,..The Leg. Saaaa-Wiiing and tuck. Ahhhh. Covers fly, exclamations of warning and surprise, we laugh, we cry, we share memories, we all pass out back to sleep.

We are currently on the road from Chatanooga to Athens. So far, we have only taken two U-turns, seen one man driving a convertible with fingerless driving gloves, stopped off to purchase five pairs of leather, fingerless driving gloves (brandishing them immediately), and we have even had time to eat breakfast at The Cracker Barrell. Mmmm, mommma. Things are looking good. So, if you are in Athens tonight or have a friend or grandparent who likes easy listening music, send them out to the 40Watt …cause we’ll be there. And it is bound to be awesome.

2006-04-19T21:43:00.000-07:00

thanks to all of you who wrote in so quickly (in a matter of hours!) with thoughtful and articulate suggestions on which song(s) we ought to cover on saturday. A few of the suggestions were creepily accurate to what we were already chatting about in the privacy of our own burgundy van. To you people we say "mind your own business". For everybody else though we do say thanks and a few of the suggestions (you know who you are) will probably work their way into a live show here and there soon, even if we can't do them all saturday.
(Talking emails) Often we get folks writing and asking “how/where did you write this or that song, what were you listening to (or not listening to), while writing it, etc.” As our record release is coming up, and we’re playing the entire album (a couple of smoking tracks at a time) on our myspace page, we’re going to try and tell the circumstances under which some of our songs were written via this blog.
For starters: as a general rule, all songs were written with all of us wearing berets, non-stop, just like all French people do. Apart from that, the stories get more individual. Keep a look out, and we'll post these things as we can remember them. Happy Easter, by the way, to all the people. And last things last - that song "Back 4 Good" by Take That. Delicious.

2006-04-18T22:07:00.000-07:00

Upcoming this week for Roman Candle..shows, shows, and Beatles covers. what? Beatles covers? YES. This week we are very excited to play a couple of shows with Will Hoge. One in Chattanooga and one in Athens. Know anybody in either of these towns? Better give them some fair warning before we blaze a hot trail of heartbreak through their backyards. sizzzzle.

Also, our friend Joe from The Evening Muse in Charlotte has asked us to come through on our way home and join in on the Beatles non-profit Tosca extravaganza at Spirit Square in downtown Charlotte on Saturday eve. We are very excited to be a part of this concert, to play with some great bands, and to play in such a great room(pictured above)..however..WE NEED YOUR HELP. Have any blaring opinions about Beatles covers? Dying to hear us croon and crash over one of your old favorites? Let's have it. Please send us an email at romancandlemusic@gmail.com Do your good deed to day and direct RC towards those golden musical numbers..... Pah-leeez.

2006-04-12T22:56:00.002-07:00

If you look out your left window you will see a picture of us from our recent show at the casbah in Charlotte. This picture comes at you courtesy of our dear friend (and fine photographer) Daniel Coston. If you look out your other window, you will see the album cover for keegan DeWitt's record entitled " & the Sparrows," which we here at roman candle recently produced (and Chris Stamey mixed).
Keegan and Chris will be playing in NY at Tonic on May 7, for all you New Yorkers. Not to mention he will be coming to NC for two shows in May, joining us and Thad Cockrell for our Wilmington and Chapel Hill shows (at the soapbox and local 506 respectively). This photo on keegan's record was taken in wilkesboro during our hot recording sesh. We recorded 13 songs in 5 days (one of which --"anyone but you", keegan wrote in 10 minutes in the studio, and we recorded in 10 minutes, so the whole song from conception to "the can" was under 30 minutes - yikes that was hot). and to think we could have been upstairs watching Emeril. Has anyone seen Fiona Apple's new-ish video which features (wilkes county native) Zach Galifianakis up in every body's face? Not to show hometown bias, but if the world had a brain the late show with Zach would be playing everynight 2 or 3 times in a row. That was one of the best and shortest lived shows ever to grace the tv screen. Boo Vh-1. Boo. By the way, we play at the Brewery in Raleigh tonight. The Choosy Beggars are sharing the bill with us, which should be a treat for all. click here to see Z.G. in Fiona Apple's video. Also Zach's website

2006-04-10T09:36:00.000-07:00

Thanks so much to all of you who came out to the Local 506 last night, it was great to see everybody! We had a great time and it was an amazing treat to hear you all singing along and finally be back up playing at home again. Thanks also to Thad and company. Always good to have the modern Elvis of country music to share the mic with (how about him touring with Willie Nelson this summer?! ShaBAMB!) We are looking forward to blasting off into the ATMOSPHERE of knock out rock and roll in the next few weeks. We hope to see everybody again soon at the next coming shows.

2006-04-07T22:17:00.000-07:00

Charlotte to Hot-lanna
There is officially a new Starbuck’s off the Highway in Salisbury, NC, which to all people traveling through to Charlotte to rock and roll shows or onto grandparents in western North Carolina, is a bodey. We stopped in twice on each pass through Charlotte for bathroom breaks, Tazo tea (complete with “the mumbled chantings of a tea shaman”..have you ever read the back of those tea bags? Inspiring.), and exclusive access to Alanis Morisette’s new acoustic CD.
We had a great time in Atlanta and thanks to everyone who came out to dance, dance, dance. We all give major props to the band who played before us called “The Booze.” Unfortunate name, fantastic music, very cool hair, and two (count em TWO) members in vests.
Thank you also to Rock Kills Kid and all of their generous fans who were kind enough to let us share the stage for both Charlotte and Atlanta shows. Very nice people and music. We dug it.
Did you know that in Atlanta you can find…
the first ever Chick-fil-a known to locals as The Dwarf House. Open 24 hours and complete with mini-door for small people entrance. Jeff entered first (6’2”).

Also,….

Roman Candle gratuitously recommends: Java Jive off “Ponce”(Atlanta natives abbreviation for Ponce de Leon Ave.) for good coffee, amazing scrambled eggs, and an impressive vintage stove collection.

As well as,…

“The Warren”, a members only bar where (no joke, you have to swipe a card to enter…) we all varnished our members only jackets and tagged after Russell for the night, complete with a great view of the city and chairs made out of twigs with velvet cushions.

2006-04-05T22:30:00.000-07:00

Let us offer this up to the good people if the world - our record has an official release date: June 20, 06. WOW. we have been anxious to deliver that tidbit for a long time. Mark your calendars, break your piggy banks, celebrate however you see fit.

Casbah: (VARIANT FORMS also Kas·bah; Arabic dialectal qaba, from Arabic qaaba, to cut up) 1. A castle or palace in northern Africa. - also "fortress" 2. often casbah The older section of a city in northern Africa or the Middle East. 3. A dark club in Charlotte of south tryon where 5 members of roman candle, (with etymology filling their heads) "cut up" the stage, warm hearts, break hearts, make friends, influence people.
Good evening Charlotta. This picture to the left is exactly what the queen city skyline looked like tonight from the stage. I had to ask a couple of our roadies to hold off on warming on baths in liquid gold (the view was too fine to turn away). Truthfuly we had a great time tonight at the Casbah. I wonder how many "Casbah's" there are in this country. my guess is several (we may have played at 4 or 5 of them). the venue name must be tempting for a club owner who wants his club to be "edgy" or inevitably "rocking". At this point in the program we have to send a warm thanks and congratulations to Jim Pearson (cousin of roman candle) who is back from flying air force planes in Iraq and just had a baby boy. Thanks are in order no only for his presence at the show night (with a party in tow), but for letting us know that the President of the of U.S. is going to be in Charlotte tomorrow morning and that they are shutting down over 170 exits and the interstates for security. which means we have to be out of dodge earl-y in the morning, if we want to be in atlanta by our sweet load-in.Thanks again to the many who came out for our show tonight. We had a primo time. -- and with less technical problems than our last show at the casbah in 2002. During the sourse of the show, Skip broke all the guitar strings on all his guitars and had to run out of the club (while the band kept rocking those smooth jams), unlock the trailer to our van (in the parking lot) and get another guitar to come back to the stage and finish a song. Thank goodness we were in the middle of our traditional cover of "fire on the mountain".

2006-04-03T20:32:00.000-07:00

Good old portland airport. We are flying on a sweet red-eye back to NC this evening. we had a fine trip to portland, and even managed to record a couple of keegan's new bossa nova songs with him. As i am writing the final seconds are ticking down on the ncaa championship game (who cares?) We are looking forward to our shows this week (charlotte - wed., atlanta - thurs. and in chapel hill on sunday), and hope to see any and all of you there (at any and all of the shows). by the way has anyone ever heard Luther Vandross's NCAA theme? "one shining moment." apparently it's a tradition. a sampling of lyrics "the ball is tipped... the time is short, the world is long..." this is our first time listening for sure.

2006-04-02T23:04:00.000-07:00

what is going on this week with the Candelinos:
Some of us have been hanging out in Portland this week and while we are here we have decided to do a couple of things: Watch as many movies on the lazyboy couch as possible, record a couple of songs with Keegan in the living room with that lovely old piano, drink Mirror Pond Pale Ale, and take some hottubs. Like frat kids. So after a couple of days ticking off videos and crawling in a congo line around the house after Jude, everybody decided to actually get some work done.

So....Skip got on those Court Classics and spanked his relatives in his first game of b-ball in a year and a half. swishhhhhh.

Logan scoured the triangle looking for the perfect ride for RC's death defying touring tricks this summer. It is true, we have officially replaced (sniff sniff) Olivia (in honor of Ms. Newton John), our old, beloved conversion betty.

Jude learned how to make the dog freak out, how to play all of those pre-programmed Menudo songs on his keyboard, and got an ear infection :(

Timshel started using emoto-cons.

Nick got food posioning :( :(

Timshel stopped using emoto-cons.

;)

2006-04-02T00:44:00.000-08:00

Stee-op the press. we officially have our first *unofficial* roman candle message board. it is located here. It is very exciting to have an "unofficial" anything, and we are very grateful to the folks that set it up. Now, supposedly, you can all talk about us behind our backs. (we also finally figured out to to use pictures on these myspace blogs, so lookout below.) the picture to the right is skip in yorkshire this past february. (what was he doing? preparing for this blog, obviously.)

2006-03-29T22:13:00.000-08:00

Okay.It’s no secret that since the death of Johnny Cash, everybody and their brother is going out of their way to claim how much they “looooove” Johnny Cash. And everybody probably already knows that if you want to aim for “the coolest” you lay claim to having ALWAYS loved Johnny Cash.. “you know! For-EVER, I have liked him for like E-Verrr.” I have watched some very respectable people turn into that thirteen year old kid who on the day after Christmas when three other kids showed up in a pair of Vans, sat there explaining ‘till they were blue in the face the intricate details of how far back their knowledge/dedication/loyalty to the art of skateboarding went.
However, it is late here, everybody is thinking of sleep, and we have just finished watching Walk the Line. So, I feel that something must be said. Over the past couple of years with the surge of Johnny Cash Memorials, Awards, Honors, and Tributes it has become the most obvious thing in the world to Everyone and Anybody that Johnny Cash is not only the Man in Black but he is absolutely and completely THE MAN of ALL MUSIC of ALL TIME.
Perhaps the frustration here is not that everybody else is saying it too, but that ,..well.. that everybody else is saying it too.
And yet,…. after we sat through Walk the Line for the second time tonight we thought that we should add our little bit to the grand echoing chorus, regardless of how many times we have heard it this year (or last, or the one before) or how many times we will inevitably hear it again and again. The truth is Johnny Cash can Bring it. Big Time. And so,.. here it goes…“I love Johnny Cash most!! I do ! I do! The first, the last, the least the most! I do! I do ! It’s true! I do!”

And we do.

2006-03-27T23:18:00.000-08:00

The car stereo in our car is not great. pretty standard really (or less) if we can tell what song is playing, and generally who is singing we are well satisfied. however, if you ever get the chance to listen to the faces "nod is good as a wink..." on a really swank stereo, do not miss the opportunity. I was lucky enough to be "borrowing" a lexus from a friend recently, to drive to the store, and this record was in the player. Gloriously (and i mean this word) however, i didn't even know the car stereo was on when i turned the ignition, and i was a good ten feet out of the driveway before my borrowed vehicle went from total silence to the heavens opening up and the song "debris" blaring slow and massive out of each side of the car's interior. wow. "maybe people have this experience all the time i thought." it was unforgettable. i've never appreciated glyn johns more...

by the way - for anyone wondering about the "songs of america project", we found out today that the record will be coming out in jan. 07 accompanied by a massive concert at the Ford Theater in Washington DC. It will be recorded for a pbs broadcast, dvd, etc.

For anyone who's never heard of this project it is a record featuring the songs of american history from 1620 - present covered (or "interpreted") by several different artists including the flaming lips, sufjan stevens, thad cockrell (fronting the Mavericks -- they cover the song "Dixie" !), and many others. We here at roman candle were assigned the song "Get Together" (made famous by the youngbloods & the easy rider soundtrack), by the producers, and recently recorded a version of the song for this record, which we hope to host for a day on myspace in the coming weeks. so look out below.

2006-03-26T22:07:00.001-08:00

(1929-2006) Before he ran the show at Hee Haw, Buck Owens ran the show in general. He was an unbelievable singer and songwriter. He is one of many knock-out artists that will fall into a newly developing genre (coined here for the first time), called "Man, they were one Rick-Rubin-produced-project away from blowing peoples' minds (again) in their old age.*** God rest his soul. I was first introduced to him (like most kids i guess) by watching hee-haw at my grandparents house. As you might imagine Hee-Haw turned many wheels in my brain, and i saw my fair share, but it didn't cause me to run out in my tender youth and buy Buck Owens records (this was truly my loss). I didn't actually start +listening+ to Buck Owens until a few years ago when we started spending a bunch of time with Thad Cockrell (quick aside - Thad Cockrell by the way, as an artist, should be seen in the same context as Buck Owens or Willie Nelson. The kind of luke warm comparisons he always gets to contemporary folks like Ryan Adams don't do justice to Thad in the least -- or Ryan Adams for that matter). Instead of rambling here any further - i'm going to suggest you listen to this verison of Buck Owen's covering Chuck Berry in England.

by the way, if you've ever seen Thad in concert, his live show might make more a little more sense in this context.

*** I'm not suggesting that these amazing artists (from a past generation, i.e. Everly Brothers, Bill Withers) would be in any way dependent on rick rubin, as good as he is, to turn heads, etc. I am suggesting that if they made an album of voice and acoustic guitar/ piano or otherwise minmal instrumentation, and were given the media attention that accompanied R. Rubin's recent collaboration with Neil Diamond, hipsters, housewives, et al. would be sporting two front teeth over a bottom lip while listening to their inevitablly hot tracks.
Last but not least - Bill Withers, or Don and Phil, if you are reading this, we here at roman candle would love to offer our production services to you in any shape or fashion...

2006-03-23T23:42:00.000-08:00

hmm sleep. what's that? one time i heard on a "behind the music" about 90's country music singer Aaron Tippen (known for "There ain't nothing wrong with the radio" and several patriotic hits), that while he was struggling to get noticed in nashville, he was able to keep up his songwriting, playing several live shows per month, and a die-hard weightlifting schedule, all while keeping a full-time job. If you kept up with Mr. Tippen in the mid-90's, you'll know it all paid off for him. If you keep up with roman candle, you might guess that our weightlifting isn't what it used to be

2006-03-22T23:34:00.000-08:00

Hmm. a nice night at the house watching BET. we have almost finsished our album artwork. The picture here is us in skip and timshel's apartment shooting photos for the inside of the album booklet. As seen here, Jude was the chief art director in both vision and execution. In this photo he was barking directions left and right like a mini A. Hitchcock. The truth however is that Jude stole all of his idea for the artistic vision from nick, and being the rascal that he is, managed somehow to get all the credit.
by the way - we are currently booking shows for april/may/june and will be adding them to our website as they get confirmed.

2006-03-21T23:51:00.000-08:00

ghost story for the kiddies:
Thanks to all who have written in asking questions about our UK trip. sorry we don't have time to answer all of them with the detail they deserve, so we've decided to post the occasional anecdote or photo on our blog. (looking at photots may require you, the reader to venture out into our official blog). There is a pretty wild and apparntly true ghost story associated with the house, Burton Agnes, where we stayed in february. It tickled us while we were there because everyone was so commonplace about it. ("here is where we do laundry, here is the red drawing room, there is the ghost's bedroom...")

(quick aside) if you ever get the chance to visit east yorkshire - and it's pretty out of the way - it is completely worth it. Go to the Burton Agnes House/gardens, and undoubtably go to either Scarborough, or Whitby, or both. The drive alone is pretty fantastic. With great zeal we reccomend eating fish and chips at Mother Hubbard's in Scarborough if you get the chance. They are the official reataurant of roman candle in yorkshire (a very coveted title). Everyone that writes a travel book reccomends the Magpie Cafe in Whitby (which we tried, twice, and it is great) but the stone truth is Mother Hubbards is where it's at.

back to the ghost story as it was told to us: in 1620, one of the three daughters of the gentleman who built the house Burton Agnes (in 1598) was mugged/attacked/robbed while riding her horse in the countryside near the house (in the above, photo the one on the far right - and the only one wearing black). she was brought back to the home in terrible shape and died a few days later. This daughter had always been in love with the house as a child and a teenager (maybe in a nutty way?), saying she thought the house was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen, and how she never wanted to leave the house, etc. You get the idea. After she was mugged, and laying on what would be her deathbed, going in and out of consciousness and/or sanity, she pleaded with her sisters to take her skull, when she died and put it in the walls of the house. yikes. The sisters agreed to this, to soothe their ailing sister, but when she died, they buried her in the churchyard, with her head attached to her body. Apparently she haunted the house in a loud and nasty way, until the sisters consulted the vicar (taking David Brent's perpetual advice), dug up her body, removed her head and put it into a wall within the house. The haunting stopped. a hundred or so years later, while the descendants' family were remodeling things, someody discovered an old skull planted in the walls. Very sensibly, they chucked it in the trash. The haunting apparently cranked back up until the skull was found and put back. This happened again about a hundred years later, during another remodel only this time they (very sensibly) buried the skull in the garden. This was also a mistake. After this third haunting, they permanently put the lady's skull into a wall in the house. Things since then have been generally at peace in the house according to the owners, except for the dogs occasionally refuse to go into the what was the ghost's bedroom. Which, having been in the room, is a pretty weird, cold place. We were told it continully smells like lilac, even though there is no lilac in the room or near it. I'm not sure what lilac has to do with ghosts, but there you have it.

2006-03-12T18:11:00.000-08:00

2006-03-12T17:57:00.000-08:00

"I'm gonna name this track 'feedback'..."

Ello. We are up in Woo Town hitting the licks with Nick, the Monster, Jeager on git-arghhhhhh. It's crazy cool. Much like any other TLC-type record that we have done in the past. No rules. No limits.
By tomorrow night we should have a finished song but for now we are just sweating it out in the basement with some cups of tea (All Mathenys gave up coffee for Lent), Logs and Timshel are I-chatting one another across the room like a bunch of dorks "o hilarity, hilarity!" and Skip,..well Skip is twirling to Nick's spaced out guitar licks because, honestly, what else can you do to the song "Get together."

2006-03-08T17:13:00.000-08:00

Hello everybody.. we are all home..and safe after six weeks of England and one night of down right spankadelics at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Welcome home peeps. Skip, Timshel, and Jude spent the past six weeks touring England, Jude on upright bass. We played a few acoustic shows in York, Leeds, and Burton Agnes. We stayed for the last four weeks of our trip up in East Yorkshire at an old manor house called Burton Agnes where we took part in their "artist in residence" program. This means we took lots of country walks, ate lots of Yorkshire pudding, and wrote a load of new music. We will be heading into the studio this weekend to work on a cover song for the "Songs for America" compilation. Very exciting. This will be a collaboration of artists doing their own interpretation of songs from American history. We were assigned the song "get together.' So wish us luck on that one. Above we have included one of the paintings (called Futility) in the Burton agnes gallery, right up next to the Cezanne.

2006-01-16T01:35:00.000-08:00

Timshel Skip and Jude are leaving for the UK this morning. look out for current events, amusing stories, etc.

2006-01-13T22:11:00.000-08:00

Sir-MIx-a BAMB. Finally we are mixing folks and it smells like hot potatoes down here. Tonight is our last night of working on this record and we are finishing here with seven songs. we are just having trouble putting this whole experience into words and everything so .....I have taken a poll as far as metaphors for how good this record is and so far we've got:

"Thad's new record is as good as.....

a) The popcorn break you take in the middle of a hot and sweaty night at the roller rink.

b) When they opened up that refrigerator on Sesame Street and all of your favorite vegetables and sandwiches were in there singing.

c) The way that big ol' fat money pouch at the school bake sale feels in your hand before you have to turn it into the principal.

d) Vienna in the Snow, St. Peter's in the Spring...."

2006-01-10T22:38:00.000-08:00

"I think records are like sausages, you like them a lot better when you don't know how they are made."

2006-01-09T22:38:00.000-08:00

We give you some quotes/glimpses from our seshhhh over the past week and a half:

1) "I feel like I have only left the basement in the past month to sleep and to soak my feet in peroxide."

... also

2) " I think Jude left a cheerio in my guitar"

........and then

3) " Guys, there is a pube on my keyboard and I didn't put it there."

..... but most importantly

4) "I have been offically suspended from listening to any more "reference" songs during the making of this record."

.... followed by

5) -Thad making certain hand gestures to all of us and saying "can you put this in quotes?"

..also, apparently we are working on a "killer vibe" here, "dude".

2006-01-03T22:27:00.000-08:00

Kong size your single?....invaluable. "Rosalyn",The first of Thad's "whomp your butt and leave you crying" songs, is hot and ready to post on Thad's Myspace. Take a listen everybody and see what you think. We have been working ridiculous hours up here trying to get these things right and still leave time for a little footy-ball. Just Kidding. No footy ball. We have set a goal for two days/song and so far we have been blowing through with few snags except that Thad is such a Prom Queen that he insists on doing vocals with no lights, standing in a circle of flames, and holding a sceptor. Hope you like it so far.

2005-12-31T14:06:00.000-08:00

Kong Size your Record, 89 cents. Hello folks.. we are officially recording thad cockrell's new project. 530 am and finishing another hot sesh. oh man can he write some songs. thad is recording an electric sitar track as i write. not really. we haven't really emerged from this basement apart to eat, make coffee and play with jude. we did indulge in about a half hour of conan the destroyer last night though. thad's two songs we've been hammering out are (at the moment) called "she's a navigator" and "rosalyn". Happy new year by the way.
really though, the sign on the burger king right as you pull onto 268 (wilkesboro) says "kong size your whopper - 89 cents".

2005-12-30T00:50:00.000-08:00

We here at roman candle certainly hope that everyone is in the middle of a fine Christmas, and we would further like to wish all you blog-readers a happy new year. thanks to all who sent us holiday wishes, cheer, gifts, etc. we are heading up to wilkesboro tomorrow to begin recording some of thad cockrell's new songs. as we have said many times before, "LOOK OUT!" the man know what he is doing behind a guitar.

2005-12-21T19:59:00.000-08:00

here's a Christmas message for you. you cannot top the iron and wine song "passing afternoon." It is playing at this moment in our house. God bless us every one. it is one of those bells, etc. in the same boat is alfred hitchcock's dial m for murder and strangers on a train. man - Santa came early this year by dropping those sweet things into our netflix. unbelievable. if you've ever seen a play and said, "that would make a rip roaring movie..." then LOOK OUT!" Dial M for murder. Ouch. The film basically takes place in one room - and one would almost not notice until you saw the talking heads in the bonus features. WOW. Chatting about Alfred Hitchcock's greatness is like sitting around talking about how great Rubber Soul is. At Christmas-time, it has to be done, no matter how endless the praise could be --. so here it is. ba doosha.

2005-12-20T18:18:00.000-08:00

We do have a new european booking agent and we will be in england playing shows in february. more deatils to come when we get them. here is their website:
primary talent international. the man to look out for is Andy Wooliscroft.

Chris Stamey is currently mixing some delectables from the keegan dewitt record we have been working on. between him and us, we should have the record mixed and listenable sometime before springtime. in the meantime, if you want to hear some d-lux demos, visit keegan's myspace page. look out for guest appearances on keegan's record form Thad Cockrell, and others.

speaking of TC, we will be involved in some (ineviatbly smoking -- have you heard warmth and beauty?) recording sessions with the man during the first two weeks of January. As always with new music from Thad Cockrell, we feel obligated to say "look out" because his new songs and his singing will undoubtably blow your brain out/break your heart. ---- this picture by the way is keegan in wilkesboro NC recording "so high so low". this picture below is Keegan and Chad Hartigan visiting the dude in los angeles.

2005-12-04T23:56:00.000-08:00

Rumors are flying that we will be doing some U.K. shows in february. they may even be true. we'll keep you posted

2005-12-04T03:53:00.000-08:00

Well hello. Christmas time, and the phone is ringing off the hook. reporters. courtesy calls (thumbs up), landlords, vicky pollard. and you want to know what they are all asking? what does the spirit of Christmas mean in our modern age? nope. they want to know if Chris (Stamey)'s acoustic guitar was ever repaired after our db's/maxwell's shows. the answer, thankfully is a sweet pie yes. Here is a quick background if you missed this tidbit of our live show history:

This past Sept. we played two shows at maxwell’s in Hoboken NJ, opening for the fully reunited dB’s. (if you don’t know who the dB’s are, visit thedbsonline.net). Half way through our second show, skip announced to the audience that we were all using the dB’s gear that night, and that they had graciously lent it to us, so that we could open for them as a full band. He also put in a special thanks to Chris for letting us borrow his acoustic guitar, which he’d brought to NY just for us to use during these opening sets.

Exactly three minutes after this “thanks, thanks and thanks” interlude, we were in the middle of a "when does night begin" and skip managed to trip over a piece of equipment on stage stand and fall into Chris’s acoustic guitar, smashing it in two. Though this was both dramatic and spectacular to the audience (who i might add consisted of 100% -sold out months in advance- dB's fans who had waited over 20 years to see this fully reunited band), It was absolutely mortifying for us. yikes. the looks on the faces of the people in the front row were pretty special. However, thanks to modern medicine, Chris's guitar has now been repaired and is home safe in chapel hill.

2005-11-28T23:48:00.000-08:00

We have a bit of a last minute show to announce. our new label set up an in store performance for us at the rugby store on franklin street, this friday Dec. 2nd (5-7pm). it will be an acoustic-y presentation, very similar to the show we just peddled across the u.s.
also it's free, so bring a friend.

there's also fine chance we'll be in the UK in jan./feb. 2006 playing shows. we'll let you know via this secret blog...
by the way, anybody want to drop their top ten albums of the year - go and do it here .

2005-11-25T22:19:00.000-08:00

the Day after Thanksgiving and all through the house not a person is stirring not even LOGan.. a mild one thirty and Logs is still sleeping. We are all three (and a half) up in Wilkesboro recovering from a delicious Thanksgiving and working on Keegan's music. The songs are getting better and better and we are hoping to get everything sittin' pretty by the time we head back home tonight. Only a few vocals, horn tracks, and farm noises and if we could just convince Skip's mom to do some scat singing. Apparently she needs to warm up first. Or just be wearing warm-ups.

by the way. this d-lux picture is only a hot sampling of some of the some of the fine coffee we enjoyed the morning of our springfield IL show. we woke up in iowa city, and happened on the 2nd best barista in the u.s. at the "java house" in the upstairs of the prairie lights bookstore. holy stuff. the man you want to talk to, if you're ever passing through is Brian. it will blow your hair back.

The Wee Hours Revue is officially mastered and ready to print up. We got our copy two nights ago from the mastering labs on Mars. Should be out in or around April '06. We are very excited about how everything sounds and we hope all you whiz kids like it too. snap.

2005-11-21T23:51:00.000-08:00

mmm. home from the stone cold road. slip the toes to jacuzzi...
we will write a bit more about the shows, etc. (soon) - until then,
this photo is a generous portrait of the pool at the hollywood downtowner motel, where we lounged after the show at the knitting factory: "our retro neon sign is a landmark in the city of hollywood."

By the way, we have a new discussion group/message board.
Visit it here -
sign up, leave messages, you get the idea.

2005-11-14T21:01:00.000-08:00

Iowa. who knew? these people are working hard, making it happen. we are spending the night in Iowa City tonight on our way to Springfield Illinois tomorrow. one very nerdy reason we were excited to see this area, is Iowa University is where Flannery O'connor came up to do the iowa writer's workshop in the 40's. Another reason is that the Des Moines Register, God bless them, called "says pop," when it came out, the best album released in 2002.
One event that should be mentioned went down saturday night without us knowing it. Riding in the van to our Des Moines show, we couldn't help but notice how hard the wind was blowing and how debris and paper cups kept flying across the highway (at the height of our windshield). we had been driving across kansas and missouri for two days, and had grown accustomed to an occasional "rough winds" road sign. not to mention that fact that we were a good hour late for our show, and we had other things on our mind. with some white knuckled driving and a few scattered "wow - that wind is pretty strong.."s we got to the venue, played music, etc. and went home for the night. when we woke up in the morning the headline on every newspaper, and on cnn at the best western was "NINE TORNADOES RIP THROUGH IOWA." hmm. we were surprised to ay the least. Not to sound insensitive, but we were expecting the headlines to be closer to "ROMAN CANDLE TEARS THROUGH NINE IOWA TORNADOES IN FORD 350 VAN,"
just kidding (naturally the headline would have probably included that we not only arrived safely but melted faces all over town with our sheer acoustic prowess).
truthfully we felt very lucky not only to have arrived safely, and (in a vague artistic sense) on time to the venue, but we were especially glad to have found out about the tornadoes the morning after. now alls we gots is two words for springfield IL. look out -

2005-11-13T23:39:00.000-08:00

Tonight in Omaha
There is only on thing more stupid than a rock and roll show that starts at 5 o clock... a rock and roll band scheduled to play that particular show sitting in their hotel room channel surfing with their shoes off, taking naps, deciding which book to read next at 4:45(!). So we rolled into town here after a very leisurely ride of under 2 hours (ridiculously pleasant after the long hauls we have been doing the past couple of days) and we were even relaxed enough to stop in for a late brunch at a cracker barrel just outside of Omaha. The world seemed ours. The show sat far ahead on the distant horizon. We felt full and happy and were seriously considering the in room movies. Until we got a call from Aaron (Thad's rip-roarin, tear the house down bass player) and realized we had to be at the venue around 3 and it was ten minutes to 5. Needless to say we made it the 2.5 miles from our hotel to the club and strolled in like we owned the place. We couldn't even find the sound guy for a good twenty so look who's waiting on who. ahhh, I think I'll have something cold to drink while I tune my guitar thank you. The venue is actually VERY cool. Very deluxe for our first visit to Omaha. It was a new place in town here called The roadhouse at Jobber's Canyon. It is a three story restaurant/brewery/music venue and they have this great Sunday night dinner concert series that held a packed house tonight. I don't think we have ever played a show where people were actually rocking out to our tunes AND eating salad. At one point during Another Summer Skip actually got a funny look on his face and slightly backed away from the mic because he thought the waitress was bringing us a tray full of soup on stage. Which would have been kind of cool and a little like practicing in your mom's basement in middle school with a designated snack time. we were up for it. The place itself, and the crowd were amazing and attentive and really great music fans. We had a great time and a fantastic meal afterwards and all by the wee hour of eight o-clock pm. Still plenty of time left for slippers and coffee.

2005-11-12T03:53:00.000-08:00

well here we are at big ben:
We played in st. louis tonight in the duck room - in the basement of a place called blueberry hill. it turns out it happens to be the place that Chuck Berry plays once a month (at age 78). wow. he's actually playing there this wednesday. HEY! who was it that sang louie louie? good tunez. not quite as good though as the post-sound check / pre stage (get ready for it) music that our sound man Poncho carefully selected. "Hurts so Good" anyone? Jack and Dianne? i'll handclap to that anyday. over and over and over again.

2005-11-12T02:15:00.000-08:00

Writing while driving across that flat half of Colorado and Kansas. (these postings, by the way are not exactly chronological: they are written often in the van and "published" whenever we get to a place with internet)
Hmm. If we didn’t have Pocahantes 1 through 3 on dvd this would be a bit of a grim drive. Yikes. Truthfully it would not be that bad, if we didn’t have to do it all in one day. We have stopped at a number of “travel plazas”in the last few days and feel like we’re a part of a new subculture. If you thought that being in a band was cool, try hanging out in Eden Idaho at their Flying J travel plaza. There is an indoor fountain, a video arcade a variety of stuffed animals and electronics and more dvd’s than a new york sidewalk. These people have progressed way past falsa blankets, and David Alan Coe tapes at the cash register. Careful however because if you’re not carrying your CDL you can’t rent a shower-room or hang in the driver’s TV lounge. We learned the heard way. There was a great moment at our first stop off in the state of Kansas however.We had stopped off for a fine quizno’s and the first song on their radio was sister goldenhair. Ridiculous and amazing all together.

2005-11-11T01:52:00.000-08:00

From Seattle to Kansas...
Seattle, city of hard rains and now, hard rock. We topped off our trip up the West Coast with shows in Tacoma, Seattle, and finally P-town. Despite the constant misting drizzle of rain we managed to keep our spirits high and our shows full of ball blasting pyrotechnics. We have discovered one solution for the potential melancholy of NW weather..Powerballads.
We even squeezed in a little bit of fooseball during the opening act of our Tacoma show. Skip and Timshel against those pansies Thad and Logan. They will tell you they were at a disadvantage (something about several missing player pieces). We will tell you that they were crying from the start of the game. Foos!
We played our last show at The Doug Fir in Portland which is a swank new club that looks kind of like a cross between Twin Peaks and Sleepers inside. (including the midgets and spacesuits). Needless to say, very cool show.
Now we have made it to Salt Lake City, Denver, and through the top of Kansas. The drive through OR, UT, CO,and WY, has been absolutely spectacular. It is all so gorgeous that we have barely noticed the 700 plus miles we have covered in a few short days. Kansas, the Wheat State, and apparently the home of very strict speeding laws and very long , so very long, stretches of highway has awarded Skip our very first tour speeding violation. shazaam.

2005-11-10T21:03:00.000-08:00

This smoking photo of our acoustic set at the knitting factory (los angeles) comes to you courtesy of our fine myspace friend "tom fool". Notice the open door offstage to the right of the photo - where aaron oliva (thad's bass player) came onto the stage half way through our set - asking, "which on of you has the van keys..your van is getting towed (!). when it comes to professionalism at shows, it is hard to beat getting your van towed half way through our set...

2005-11-07T22:47:00.000-08:00

This is Logan and Timshel in N.California (Weed, CA to be exact). If you ever are driving up I-5 above Mt. Shasta, and you see a little hut called "cowboy espresso", stop whatever you are doing and get a breakfast burrito and some coffee. breathtaking.

2005-11-04T21:01:00.000-08:00

all the way to Portland Oregon and we have got two words....Mirror Pond. This is hands down the best beer in the U.S. and we love it so much that we have subscribed to the brewery website. Amen. We have spent the last few days resting up in P-town and then we headed over the mountains to Bend,OR to light up another night of ridiculous rock-tast-tics. It was so cold and wonderful there that we actually played in our snow clothes. Skip was in bibs. We had a great turn out and Thad and Caitlin played such a fantastic show. We had Keegan come up with us to play one of his songs that we recorded this past month with us (it was stunning) and then Logs even got up for some jammy jams with the Begonias. The show was in an old converted roller rink that Timshel (who was born in Bend) had spent many a seven year old night skating backwards in acid wash jeans to The Jovi.

2005-11-01T00:33:00.000-08:00

Hey-hose. From LA to Portland. Bam! pretty drive. we rolled into LA qround 8:30 pm about 2 hours late (unfortunately a gas truck wrecked/exploded on an off ramp on the way from phoenix to LA. needless to say trafiic was held up). and despite our list of confirmation numbers, there was no room at the Hollywood Super 8 for this party. so we tried the hollywood Downtowner Inn where a nice man with the turtleneck gave us a room. Only catch was, when we unlocked the door there was already somebody in the room. Yikes - Hollywoof. Our second room was empty - off to a good start - and with a good view of the room across the way where we could wave to our motel mates who were eating popsicles and smoking on their bed. We dropped our stuff off and headed to the club. We already told you that this show rocked everybody's socks off.
We spent the next morning driving up and down sunset boulevard looking for drum parts, drinking to-go coffees, and blasting our bass. Just kidding, we headed up 101 towards Oregon. We stopped first in Santa Barbara and ate some Super-Rica Taco which was dope. Then we decided to take the scenic San Marco Pass around to Lake Ch_______ and it was Beautiful. Logan lost the keys, we happened on some sparring kick boxers.. one of whom was topless (male) and then we stopped in on a dutch village where Skip took a picture of a yard full of pumpkins..and one windmill. We found the keys in a trash can, like you do, meditated with the kickboxers, and headed up the highway towards San Francisco (thinking we would make it to Ashland OR that night.) At about 3:30 am (after a sweet foggy trip across the Golden Gate Bridge) the van filled with light and we realized we were NEVER going to make it out of Cali that night. so we pitched our teepee out in the redding CA mesa and slept like babies.

2005-10-28T18:24:00.000-07:00

One wonderful tour blog coming at you:
We are writing from the long hard road at the moment. somewhere between Tucson and Los Angeles. we are rolling a stone cold midnight blue town and country minivan, so if you see us on the highway, respect, etc. We have spent the last two nights in Tucson with our great friends Heather and Hessel. Logan had never seen a cactus before and cut his finger on one of the prickly bits. Our first show was downtown at a place called Plush. Heather cooked a swank gourmet feast of spaghetti and red sauce and then we headed out the door just in time to show up and blow the room up with our blinding fire of rawk. just kidding. we are playing acoustic sets this tour, opening for Caitlin Cary and Thad Cockrell (which means that the blinding rawk flies from the tips of our acoustic guitars...)
The first show went pretty good. We are all three still getting used to playing a stripped down set, without the rest of the Roman Candle lovelies out here to beef up our killer stage presence. But we had a few twirlers in the back... so that's always good.
We headed out to Los Angeles early this morning but ended up doing a u-bie twenty minutes out of town to head back to an exit BEFORE our original on-ramp to pick up our CDs that had safely arrived a whole day late to the fed-ex hub. And... they weren't open for another half hour, said the lady behind the counter. So Skip responded to this by throwing his empty coffee cup onto the pavement as hard as he could and kicking up his leg like Charlie Brown. Then we went to get Bagels. An hour later we were on the road with our CDs and heading to Cal-ieee. Sweet.
And we got all the way to Phoenix. And just past Phoenix there was an exploded gas truck that kept us sitting in traffic for a good two hours. So we picked our noses/wrote love poems. As soon as the traffic started to move we got so excited that we took the first exit and all took a pee break. We bought drinks and cornnuts and almost skipped back to the car we were so giddy to be NOT sitting in stand still traffic with six hours of driving time ahead of us. And then we went to get back on the highway and realized that ...wait.. the Gas truck exploded ON THIS EXIT. Amazing. How do we get around it? We what? We, excuse me what? Did you say we get back on the highway in the opposite direction and head all the way back to the previous exit where we were sitting two hours before at the beginning of the traffic? amazing.
But we did actually make it to LA and they didn't even need us for soundcheck because some other band with cool mohawks (but also driving a minivan) were getting a soundcheck instead of us. We blew that place up. It was amazing.