European tour 2K10

We're heading to Europe this spring with the one and only AGNOSTIC FRONT as well as THIS IS HELL. We're super stoked and it's going to be an amazing tour. Check out the dates:
Mar 28 - Kassel @ Spot (Germany)
Mar 29 - Wroclaw @ Alibi (Poland)
Mar 30 - Bratislava @ Randal Club (Slovakia)
Mar 31 - Kosice @ Colloseum Club (Slovakia)
Apr 1 - Leipzig @ Conne Island (Germany)
Apr 2 - Bydgoszcz @ Estrada Bar (Poland)
Apr 3 - Rostock @ Zwischenbau (Germany)
Apr 7 - Traun @ Spinnerei (Austria)
Apr 8 - Cham @ L.A. (Germany)
Apr 9 - Castelletto Cervo (Biella) @ Koko Club (Italy)
Apr 10 - Montpellier @ Secret Place (France)
Apr 11 - Badalona @ Estraperlo Club (Spain)
Apr 12 - Madrid @ TBA (Spain)
Apr 13 - Lissabon @ Music Box (Portugal)
Apr 14 - Arrasate @ Hiru (Spain)
Apr 15 - Biarritz @ Atabal (France)
Apr 16 - Lyon @ CCO (France)
Apr 17 - Arlon @ L’Entrepôt (Belgium)
Apr 18 - Eindhoven @ Dynamo (Netherlands)
Apr 19 - Karlsruhe @ Die Stadtmitte (Germany)
Apr 20 - Montbeliard @ Atelier des Moles (France)
Apr 21 - Weinheim @ Café Central (Germany)
Apr 22 - Bochum @ Matrix (Germany)
Apr 23 - Meerhout @ Groezrock (Belgium)
Apr 24 - Berlin @ SO36 (Germany)
Also we're confirmed to record our next album in March. Keep out for all this stuff. Good Things! See you on the other side of the pond.

Waking up out of hibernation

This is our first show in a long time and it's good to be playing with some of good friends like Take it Back! We'll be playing some new songs so make sure to come check us out.
Here's what our schedule is looking like right now:
February: Florida shows
March: Recording new album
April: Europe tour
May: US tour
early summer: new album
So yea we're not dead. We're actually quite alive.

What's Up Stangers?

So there hasn't been a lot to post about lately. We got off our last tour over a month ago and we haven't played any shows since. In fact, we don't have any more tours planed for the rest of the year. So what gives?

Well first off, a few of us are taking this time to focus on school. Actually 3/4 of the band is focusing on school so that's taking up a lot of time. The other reason (and the one you're probably more interested in) is that we're taking this time to write new material for our next album. With school and having one member living on the other side of the state, it's a slow going process(Thank God for Garage Band and Ichat!) but we're working it out. I have to say I'm personally pleased with the music we've written so far. It may catch you off guard. We'll see.

The tentative plan is to record early next year. We'll be going back to Boston to work with the one and only Jim Siegal, and then the record should be out in the spring. Will we finally release something on vinyl? Maybe...

Our other order of business is finding a new bass player. For those of you who didn't catch us over the summer playing as a four peice, Kyle had to leave the band at the beginning of the summer. Nothing dramatic or anything. He's just up to his eyeballs in debt and can't afford to be in a band that doesn't make any money, so now he's got a 9-5. We still love him and wish him the best in his battle against the credit bureau.
If you're interested in trying out send us a message on the myspace. Here's a few of the requirements:

-Loves Jesus
-Straight Edge
-Able to tour full time
-Lives in Florida or willing to relocate
-Good attitude!

And these aren't required but preferred:

-Pro gear (and it has to work too)
-Good taste in music (subject to my opinion)
-Into The Office, 30 Rock, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and Friday Night Lights
-Can quote most of Waynes World, Zoolander, and Airheads
-Ability to skate is always a plus
-You don't wear stupid shirts that are sold at truck stops. We already got one of those.
-You gotta be able to hang!
That's it for now kids. See everyone in a few months.

Roof tour 2k9.

Up until two days go we were on tour with one of the heaviest bands in the world. A band called Advent. We traveled across the Southern United States with them, playing in states including Alabama, Tennessee, Texas, and finally ending in the great state of Florida, where we would have beach parties by day and play hardcore by night. Here's how it went.

Last July after playing the world famous Cornerstone festival we met up with Advent and did a short tour through the north and the midwest. During this time we found we really like touring with each other. And not just a little bit. Like a lot! You couldn't really ask for more from a band to tour with. They all like good music, they're always down to hang out, and they all have really cool hair (seriously, it's perfectly quaffed.) We decided we needed to do it again. Fast forward to the end of August and we were driving to Birmingham to meet up again on part two of the ADV/CTP tour.

The month we had in between tours Advent had lost their old drummer Chris and found a fill in named Jordan. Pretty much right when they got to the first show Joe from Advent pulled me aside and told me that their new drummer was a little strange and socially awkward. He told me Jordan was homeschooled and was very sheltered, so he was almost frightened to go on tour. He was even paranoid he'd be beaten up by some rouge straight edge gang. Being the Gulla Bull that I am I believed him, and it seemed right to do so because that dude WAS super weird. He introduced himself to me about three times while never making eye contact. He grumbled to himself and always looked super paranoid and uncomfortable. It was like having Rain Man around. I even asked Joe later if he was autistic, which became super awkward when I saw Jordan peaking around and staring at me from behind the corner. As it turned out Jordan is not autistic. In fact he's pretty normal guy and I had believed one of many crazy untrue stories that Advent would tell me over the next couple weeks.


The tour started in Alabama and winded its way through Nashville, where we played with the ultra gritty and ultra heavy Mankind, and on to Oklahoma where we played with our buddies in Take it Back! Further into tour we made it to Mcallen Texas, a small border town that always has sick shows. Not only was the show amazing, but we spent some time exploring the roof of the local VFW hall, much to the dismay of the bartender at the VFW. Me and Mike and three of the guys from Advent are up on the roof for about a 30 minutes with no one noticing, just being goofballs and reenacting scenes from the Matrix. When we decide to get down a guy in his 60's and a security guard walk outside looking at us like we're crazy. At the same time a mafia looking guy drives up in Cadillac giving us the same look. It's like if there were two Robert Deniros and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson looking like they were ready to rough you up. Quickly Johnny makes up a story that we were goofing around and someone's wallet got thrown onto the roof and we came up to retrieve it. The mafia guy got real concerned. "Well did you find the wallet?" We assured him we found it and he seemed relieved and we all got off the roof without getting a beating from the Mcallen VFW mob.

After a grueling 16 hour drive into Florida, we played our next show in Freeport. A little rural town on the gulf coast. It's pretty much the last place you would think to have a hardcore show. We got to the show, which ended up being in someone's backyard in the middle of nowhere, thinking this was a big mistake and we're all going to get murdered. But kids literally came out of the woodwork and the backyard was packed out. It was a fun little show in a place that could've been the site of folk festival. Or a chainsaw massacre. Or both. The next day was followed by some down time hanging out in the gulf of Mexico. Jumping off channel markers. Swimming with sharks. You know, the usual.

Wednesday we played a sold out show in Jacksonville with a little band called Have Heart and our friends we met in Canada, Cruel Hand, along with some other amazing bands like Crime in Stereo and Foundation. We got to open and the place was nuts from our set up until the last note played by Have Heart. I don't know what else to say except it was seriously one of the best shows I've ever been to. I'll leave it at that.


The tour ended Saturday night in Lake City with kids going wild pretty much the whole night, and us ending the set with a pretty horrible American Nightmare cover. Still fun none the less and it was a great way to end the tour. It's been a couple days and we miss those Advent dudes. Already. They're great guys who have their heads in the right place and are one of the heaviest hitting bands out there. By the way, go check out their new album "Naked and Cold." It will blow your mind.

That's it for now. Check back for a bunch of videos. Later!

Hilarity

Check out this dude rant about our CD and hate on our brand of "Christian Metal."

The funniest thing about this video is his distaste for the song Shameless, which he seems to think is written about atheists, when in reality the song was written as a response to other Christians.
Hope you have a nice little laugh over this.

Americans Abroad.

In case you were wondering, we're still in Canada, and we've been here for just over a month. After we left Horizons in Winnipeg we headed east through the Canadian Wilderness towards the province of Ontario where we've been ever since.
We've been on the road since March 26th and I'm almost too fatigued to give a full detailed account of everything that's happened since we've been here, so instead I'll leave you with a few details and as many pictures I can find. There may possibly be a post-tour blog in full detail of everything that happened, but until then here's the liner notes:

- We didn't see one Moose, Bear, or Mountie. What's the deal?
-We played a lot of house shows. House shows are always fun.
-When we were in Quebec we played a show in an elementary school. Then we stayed the night there and skated through the school all night.
-We had some shows fall through, so we hopped on a few dates with Madball, Cruel Hand and Wisdom in Chains. Fun couple of days!
-During those few days, Madball taught us a game called Mafia, and now it's our favorite thing to do especially on days off.
-Up here it's way too cold to be May. At home it's 90 degrees!
-Food is expensive so I'm always hungry.

Now enjoy these photographs!















A number of video blogs are coming soon. See you soon America!

Oh, Canada!

So there is this whole other country that is a lot like America, and it's even really close to America, but it's not America. You would only know it's not the U.S. by very little things. For one thing It's a lot colder. Also there's no Taco Bells, everything is measured in the metric system, and their currency has silly things on it like polar bears, kids playing hockey and the queen of England. This place is called Canada and we've been hanging out here for the past week or so.

We first arrived in this strange, yet somehow familiar country last Sunday. After a miserable drive through a very wet and cold Washington state, we arrived at the border eager to explore and receive our free pancakes and maple syrup (the guys in Rebuilt told me this was a common occurrence during customs and for some reason I believed them). We expected to spend at least an hour at the border, especially after hearing horror stories from other bands trying to cross into Canada. Strip searches, interrogations, being taxed for all your merch, that kind of stuff. Though we were asked a few seriously worded questions, such as if we were "into civil disobedience" we got by unscathed and headed in.
No joke, as soon as we drove in the skies opened up and welcomed us into the new land. We pulled into Vancouver somewhat awestruck at this big city juxtaposed between cloud covered mountains and blue ocean. The show that night was in a small loft that is currently a sort headquarters for anarcho-punk kids who are super pissed about the Winter Olympics coming to Vancouver next year. Not a huge turnout, but fun none the less. After the show we made our way to Kelowna, which meant driving through lots of mountains and lots of snow. Coming up here I really assumed "Hey it's April, how cold can it get?" Apparently enough to drive through snow for a few hours.


After having a belated Easter dinner at Dustin's from Horizons in Kelowna (which was amazing btw) we had another long drive through more snow covered mountains, but this time the weather was much better and it was daylight, so we were able to enjoy what was probably the most epic drive we have been on. The scenery on that drive was insanely beautiful and I've never seen anything like that. That night we played Edmonton, which we heard was going to most likely suck, but it ended up being a lot of fun, especially since Grave Maker played and hung out, and Todd from Means was there and let us stay with him in his cramped little apartment.

The next night we played Calgary in the most Canadian bar you've ever seen and then proceeded to party into the night with Horizons. We ended up at this party after the show where within the first ten minutes of our arrival there was a dance party, almost everyone got half naked, and a fight was super close to breaking out. The party was followed by all of us getting into Horizons' van and moshing/ stage diving inside, until all the mosh spilled out onto the side of the highway. It was one of those nights where you just had to be there.

Most of the shows so far have gone pretty well. There's been some good and some bad. The show in Winkler the other night was unreal and it was cool to see everyone get into the new stuff. Winnipeg wasn't so great but the beatboxing in the street with the locals afterwards made up for it. Horizons have been great guides on this tour, teaching us about the best parts of Canada such as poutine (french fries covered in gravy and cheese curds), "Good Gods" (attractive Canadian girls) and the very Canadian show known as Trailer Park Boys. The Winnipeg show was our last night with them and we're bummed we had to say goodbye. We'll see if we can survive the east coast on our own. I'm sure we'll be fine as long as we don't hit any moose.