Computerized, “touch screen” voting is slowly becoming the norm in the States and I for one am not very excited. First of all, that shit is sketchy. Second, it’s one step closer to sitting at home and voting in your underwear over the internet. Yes, I think you should have to put on pants to vote. Call me old-fashioned.
But in New York, voting is still an amazing experience.
First of all, it only takes place in nostalgia-inducing grade school gymnasiums. You wait in line, talk to a nice old lady, sign your name on a dotted line, and are quickly ushered into a little booth.
KA-CHUNG!
We are happy to hand a song over to BarackRock, a program that is pairing bands and visual artists to give away “singles” with original artwork by designers.
We chose our Daytrotter session version of “The Loving Sounds of Static.” It’s way different than the original. Providing artwork are our friends in vision, Wyeth Hansen and Ryan Dunn, aka Labour, who also directed both of our videos and are generally awesome.
Also, one of my favorite musicians in the world, Cody ChestnuTT, delivered this awesome song to the site today.
Vote on Tuesday!
Someone finally gets it!
Thanks to the teeming democratic forest of the internet, there are thousands of photos of our band from around the world to peruse. I won’t lie - sometimes, when feeling particularly naval-gaze-y, I peruse away. And surprise! there are some really great photographers out there. I’ve put a few of our favorites together from this winter and spring if you care to take a look.
Between February and June of this year we toured more or less constantly. Not only was this type of non-stop schedule new for us, but most of our time was spent in England and mainland Europe, places we’d never been as a band. There were a lot of new people and places to encounter and, as with any tour that doesn’t end with someone in jail or stranded at the side of a highway, the simple fact that all the impossible logistics worked out so well was genuinely shocking.
We had such a good time getting to know these places and bands. When I remembered to I would take a picture. These photos are from those two UK/EU tours - with Editors and Tokyo Police Club - skipping (for now) our States-side spring tour with Cut Copy and Black Kids, which was also great. Click on breakfast to get started.
If I had to rank my favorite sports (something I’d be better equipped to do circa 12 years old anyway - rock and roll stole the sporting impulse from me at a young age), American football would be a few long country paces from the top. However - turn real life into a 1991 Nintendo game and I will gladly shout from the Belgian rooftops that Super Tecmo Bowl is the most satisfying waste of time ever.
In the context of a tour, what makes Tecmo so good is season mode, wherein your assignment is to guide a group of overpaid, heavily licensed, and maximally juiced up pro ballers to the early-digital Super Bowl that is their purpose.
Hello from Manchester! We are a few dates into our UK tour with Tokyo Police Club and all is well. They aren’t from Tokyo or even police officers, but are rather quite genteel, well-heeled Canadians. They are also a fantastic band.
But rewinding a few weeks, on our US tour this spring with Black Kids & Cut Copy something magical happened - I learned how to snap. Powerfully. Powerful, overpowering snapping. Something about 10 hour drives through Wyoming in both directions… anyway, I have since been impressing everyone in my path with my new ability, or at least impressing myself.
As we criss cross Germany this week, we’ve gotten to know the alternately amazing and frustrating highway system here, known as the Autobahn. I always thought it was one particular road - a mythical place where you drive as fast as possible as a sort of national imperative, ideally in a very nice German sports car. (more…)
Hello from Hamburg!
The european Mobius Band invasion takes a break for the day in the home (or at least namesake) of that most American of appropriations, the hamburger. Haven’t eaten one yet on tour, but the doner kebab in Germany is proving tough to beat. (more…)