NC

Here are some things that we wrote about our trip to NC.

6/21/06 12:45 pm
We stayed in DC last night. Caught up with an old friend I haven’t seen in a while. We stayed at his and his girlfriend’s place. The accommodations were super good. We all had a spot on a futon or couch. They even had an AC for us. There were lentils and rice and homemade salsa. Not planning on things being that nice everywhere. Right now we are on 95 S just passed Richmond, VA. KingMike and Marissa don’t ever listen to albums all the way through, which is taking some getting used to. I don’t ever skip tracks on albums. It makes my brain feel scattered to cut an album before it is finished.
The truck is cramped but it doesn’t bother me at all. To be on the road, playing music is all I have ever wanted to do. We have food, AC, and a vehicle we know won’t brake down. We have too many ‘luxuries’ to be complaining about leg room.
-Jarrett D
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6/21/06 8:52 pm
We’re at the venue and they gave me X’s on both hands cause I’m totally straightedge (XXX!!!). I do listen to albums all the way thru but only when they are perfect. I walked into a parking meter. JD doesn’t like that Marissa and I don’t talk to people like he does. I don’t know about him but I was always told not to talk to strangers. Driving stick sucks. Cigarettes here are $3, I love it. Oh, we can smoke in the venue too. Fuck NY/NJ.
-KingMike
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6/22/06 6:00 pm
We are in Delaware on the way home. I meant to write in yesterday’s entry about a comment Marissa made. At one of the rest stops in southern Virginia she said that she was disappointed that it wasn’t weirder (being another state and all). And I looked around and said that that’s what we get with the McUSA big business country that we live in. I saw a Wal-Mart and an Office Depot and an Applebees or some shit.
Durham, our first big stop in NC, was amazing. We went to check out Bull City Records and talked with Chaz, the owner. He mentioned hearing about us from Jim Testa’s blog which was pretty cool. His store is great. Perfect selection. He runs a ton of shows too (w/ The Ergs! And their pop punk friends playing regularly). He has been there for about 8 months and already knows almost everyone in the ‘scene.’ It made me pretty jealous. I wish New Brunswick had a record store or venue or something like what Chaz is doing.
Next we went over to 305 S. Dillard “Anti-Mall.” Another totally rad place. It is an old warehouse set up w/ a thrift shop, café, comic book store, and knick knack shop. We were going to meet up with Mr. Jones, who owns the comic book and the man we stayed with (more on him later). Also they have an amazing venue space. It is currently closed though due to fire codes or some such thing. They are hoping to have it up to code by September. It will be a place to watch out for. The downtown of Durham is almost totally vacant. Very eerie place.
We headed over to Chapel Hill which was about a 20 min drive away. Chapel Hill, Durham, and Raleigh are called the ‘triangle’ and work as one big city, kind of. We checked out a few record stores. Talked to some clerks and made some fans, for real! They listened to the demo and were totally impressed.
The show was okay. We rocked pretty hard. It was intense. There were about 15 people there. I think we scared a few which was cool. The Chicago artist Devin Davis was on first. He is on this new KRS comp that is being pushed pretty hard. He and his band were totally impressed. They told us that they could get us shows in Chicago and Jacksonville, FL. And we sold a CD. And Marissa broke a string.
We stayed with Mr. Jones. He is friends with Billy from Sceneless. Mr. Jones was the nicest dude. He has a pretty amazing DVD and graphic novel collection. He played us a Tom Waits song on accordion which was probably my highlight of the night.
On the way home we got stuck in traffic next to a tractor trailer full of hogs. It smelled so bad. I can’t even begin to describe it. That shit was cooking in 90+ degree weather. When traffic finally broke we pulled away as fast as we could. But the damned thing caught up with us like 10 mins later! We couldn’t lose it. The worst shit stink for more than an hour.
-Jarrett D