we want to thank everyone who gave us a show, came out to a show, played with us, downloaded a song, bought a cd or played our record over the past 365 days. it was a really fun year and would not have been possible without our friends - not limited to, but including the following awesome bands, promoters and talented people:

aaron & beth delarosa, adding machine, alan 1619, amber brown vision, andy gesnar / artist amplification, anthony chu, ben garvey, bernd maier, brian newell, carrie gorn, chris ward, cold blue stars, colleen clark, constance martin, craig cirinelli, debra kammerer, erich roneree, eyewisheye, full circle records, i dreamed of pompeii, jeffrey fields, jessica larrabee, jimmy casino, joel & jamie plewa, john bochanski, john tursi, kellee mason, kevin karr & kristin giermanski, kitty kat dirt nap, kris margiotta, lefty’s deceiver, life at sea, maria tessa sciarrino & sara sherr / plain parade booking, mark & jen griffin, mason & megan wendell / canary promotions, metroplex, michael bruchanski, michael wolff, mini band, missing pilots, monica cuartero, pat mccay, patrick cusick, phil miarmi, pintu & jessica maisuria, robyn montella, scott kivowitz / countryside photo, sometime in april, steve poponi / gradwell house recording, steve shomo, the creeps, the method & result, the silence kit, the slow wire, the spinto band, the switch, the teeth, three hot chicks promotions, tim farrow, tim kaye, tim patton, u.s. rail and vox humana.

take care of yourselves in the new year.

happy holidays, everyone! here’s hoping you get everything you wished for.

return of the king was real good, yo. monica, carryn and i saw freedy johnston at nxnw on saturday. that man writes some of the best songs i’ve ever heard in my life. bitter, bitter weeks opened and he played a great set too. crowd was ok, not a whole lot of people on a saturday night which will never fail to blow my mind. helped matt & kellee move into their new place on sunday. holy crap, have they got a lot of stuff. the super cool house they got can more than accomodate, though.

learn more about music activism and have a few laughs at whatacrappypresent.com

last show of the year, and probably for a while at the fire last night. the all-ages show that was supposed to start at 6:00 ended up starting two hours late AND a band got added, so the 21+ show didn’t even get started until close to 11. there are few things more disheartening than sitting at a bar, wracked with a head cold, eating cigarette smoke and watching a bunch of denim-clad rockers busting out an unironic cover of U2’s ‘bad’ to close their set to a room packed with adoring teenagers. we went on second and played a short set. our friend brian newell did a great job on drums, hopefully we can rope him into playing with us on a regular basis. the other bands, life at sea & vox humana were fantastic and very cool people. thanks so much to shelly for setting up the show.

tuesday night, alan put on a show at the 11 east cafe in glassboro nj. it’s a great little spot for listening to music and just hanging out. adam kaniper and ben pierce were real good. matt dunn did a super nice cover of ‘let’s stay together’. i didn’t particularly distinguish myself with my set but people were nice enough to listen anyway.

this saturday night we’re playing the aod jazz odyssey set at the fire in philadelphia. our friend brian newell from the english system is going to be sitting in on drums for us that night and we’re rather excited about it. also playing are buffalo’s vox humana and chicago’s life at sea (ex-braid). come and hang out in the bar where i guarantee at least one dog will be sitting on a barstool.

matt & i recorded a version of i was so sure while we rehearsed last week. i think it came out really well and it’s the kind of the live, unproduced feel i want for the fake jazz record (or cassette, as it were). if you listen closely you can hear matt breathing in the right channel.

went on first on wednesday night and i think it sounded pretty good. had to borrow kara’s capo for a few songs, which was pretty embarrassing because i didn’t exactly know how to put it on (it was the kind with the tightener on the back). she pretty much had to put in on for me. i can be such an amateur. anyway, i didn’t play anything new but i didn’t screw up too much and my voice held up so i was relieved. gary gray (a.k.a. invisible) went on next. he’s (local) david gray’s brother and he played a really good set of both hip-hop and acoustic songs. his lyric of the night was ‘…like face gettin’ b.a. baracus on a plane’. he had a wonderful singing voice too. then kara lafty went on and as nolan said, she played the hits - rather, she played all the songs we love. considering everyone who played was asked to do so the night before, it went off pretty much without a hitch and everyone had a really good time. robyn, you rock.

if you’re in the city and have absolutely nothing else going on in your life tonight, i’m playing a very last minute solo set along with kara lafty (the jane anchor) and more at club 218 on south street. show starts at 9:00, i go on at 9:30.