Happy Independence Day to those in the USA!
I should be asleep now but I can't do it. I got an e-mail from the promoter of our show on July 27th stating that he can't find a band to open for us and asked again if we had the equipment to play the show. My e-mail to him told him that there was equipment that we needed. I have done a desperate search and even asked some bands that perhaps we wouldn't want opening for us otherwise. Just don't want him to cancel the show.

It sucks that we do not currently have the money to afford a PA system, microphones and an amp/head/cabinet for Chad to use. Alls we want to do is play for people. They genuinely seem to love our live show and our music. My mom told me last week that even thought it's been 5 weeks, we played only 6 songs and it was an open mic that people have been asking when we'd be back. Half of the staff (that were onhand to see us play and even those that weren't but have heard the raves from those that were there) want us to play there again. Which we will. I am not going to brag about our music and live show much more tonight but the point is that people seem to really want to see us play but we just don't have the equipment.

Please feel free to click the "launch mp3 player" button to the left and a new window will pop up and play the three songs from our brand new demo with the new lineup. Please feel more than free to share your opinions on what's going on. These aren't our best songs that we have right now but they were the ones that we were most prepared to record at the time. Thanks.

Other than that I am exhausted from work. Ive almost hit my 40 hours for the week in three days of work. And because I get holiday pay during my shift later today I am going to get about 12+ hours of overtime this week. But the money has to go to my speeding and parking tickets. I never get either. But I have one of each. And with all of the vacations coming up (for everyone but Chad and myself) we're going to be nailed with hours. The money will be very good although there are more than enough places that the money will have to go so that we'll never see any of it really.

Damn. I've other stuff to post but it won't be as positive as perhaps it should be because when I get this exhausted, everything is painted over with a glaze of doom. Hopefully these things will work out and I can report on them in a better light/mood.

Thanks for hanging in there with me. I'm off to attempt sleeping again.
Good night.

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I've recently been overcoming the semi-paralyzing semi-nervous (or are the just mental) breakdowns that had gotten bad enough one night that I sat in my car at work while Chad swept the parking lot because I felt like I couldn't start the car and drive home. It's been sooo many things so constantly that my mind couldn't take it any longer I guess. And normally I pride myself on the solidity of my ability to overcome such things and let them bother me at all.

I guess I've also grown up a good deal. Not that I considered myself to have been immature before any of this but through all of this stuff going on I think I've learned many self-taught lessons to let other things that DID bother me in the past slip away. It's basically just seeing things in a new light. I'll probably bring most of those things to light to you over time. But now it's time to move onto another subject.

Musically I am growing a thousandfold. Chad and I sat outside with an acoustic and went through some old songs and new song ideas. With just the one guitar (with me playing) we heard some awesome things. Not only was I playing it dead-on the way that it should be but I was throwing in so many things naturally that I don't think I'd normally be able to memorize because of my super horrible memory. But I repeated them each time because that's how it felt that it should be. It's lead to a whole new level of confidence in what we're doing. And our new material is blowing even us away. We're booked for a pretty damned good show..especially for our first one with this new lineup and we couldn't be more excited. And I don't mean just what's going on musically but we're doing more 'showmanship' stuff that is going to make our overall live appeal even more amazing.

I've updated our site with the new layout which I wanted to do with our new lineup. Kind of a brand new beginning because what we were previously is viewed now simply as a stepping stone to what we are now..which is what we always wanted to be. You can view this new layout here and this will also let you hear both of the songs on our myspace profile but it also lets you hear the other song which I still can't put up because they say that the filesize is too large to be posted. So go to our official site to check it..as well as the others...out!

Work is going a little better. We're without our boss. He either quit or was fired. They aren't telling us. But I've heard stuff from very credible sources which have made Chad and I (who both really liked him for what he thought he was) really despise him basically. But it seems as if the "cleaning house" is over. Well it's still going on to a degree but they are trying to weed out anyone that it turns out is doing any one of several bad things that seem to be going on there. I'm not worried about either Chad or myself in that regard because what they've told us they're looking for, neither of us do. And they have to tell us what they are looking for so that we are warned and if fired for it we can't collect unemployment and the company doesn't have to pay for it. And my boss is pushing for us to get moved up and get paid more. And our district manager seems to actually value her opinion. Although someone (and she believes that it was our former manager) told our DM that what I told him about my health conditions (primarily Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) were complete bullshit. Fuck him. Pardon my language...but fuck him. And she told me that she told our DM how she sees things. She says that I work my ass of at all times but I do a better job and my sales are better when I get two days off and aren't overworked. So hopefully overall this will end up all being good. We weren't moving up at all with our previous store manager because our DM disliked him since he started and rode his ass and our store manager was afraid to go to his manager about doing anything for any of us. Pray that it works out one way or another. If not..there are always other jobs but atleast I can move on on my own terms.

Lastly...I'd found out that one of my fav bands, Evans Blue, was playing Colorado which was one of the closest places they are playing. Which is a little over 1,700 miles away..but then they are a canadian band. But this was at a location somewhat near someone we know enough that would allow us to stay so we could see them. They offered to buy tickets for a group of us to go if we could get there. But I don't see any way that Chad and I could ever get up the money to fly out there. We'd drive (we're in want of a sweet roadtrip) but that would just make the whole deal take about 7 days atleast which would end up costing us more in pay then flying there would. But who knows..maybe we'll work something out. But the pub that we've gone to since we moved here has their brand spankin' new single on their jukebox and it is soo amazing. We are dying to see them again. Especially since we hadn't heard of them before the first time we saw them when they opened for Taproot. But now we know all of the songs by heart and are far more prepared for the awesome spectacle that it would be. Pray for us on that too =0)

And with that I bid you adieu. Time to pass out. Goodnight. And awesome weekend!

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