***Disclaimer: This blog was written two weeks ago, we apologize for the lag in our updates…
Hello Friends,
Though I’m currently sitting in a coffee shop outside Seattle, I figured it’d be a good time to fill you in on the rest of our stay in the Bay Area last week. First of all, a HUGE shout out to the Chae family for being kind enough to open up their home to us and for blessing us with their generosity and hospitality!
We hung out with some of the good folks from Living Water Church on Thursday before our show and they were kind enough to take us out for sushi and a walk down the beachfront. Good times. The show went really well, and more importantly, funds were raised to benefit a great organization that works to combat sex trafficking called New Day for Children (www.newdayforchildren.com).
We were also able to spend some time in San Francisco on Friday and Saturday, which was sweet, since it’s a great city. We took in some of the views, went thrift store shopping, and watched jazz. (Good) jazz musicians are just on an entirely different level. A bit of a tangent, but if you are ever in Charlottesville on a Wednesday or Thursday evening - do yourself a favor and go to Millers on the downtown mall to catch some sweet jazz. You will not be disappointed.
Pier 39
Tearing it up
We wrapped our time up in the Bay Area with another show on Sunday (thanks BACBC!!) and dinner with our good friends from Virginia, Cliff and Carrie Woolley on Monday.Needless to say, we enjoyed our stay (as we did our last time here), and look forward to coming back in the not too distant future.
So this blogentry is a little late, but here it goes.Three Thursdays ago, Steve, Jack and I witnessed one of the more memorable musical experiences I’ve ever been been a part of: The Watkins Family Hour at the Largo in Los Angeles.
At the legendary Largo
It wasn’t just the ridiculous collective talent displayed on stage that left me at loss for words, it was the intimate, conviction-filled way they connected with the audience through their blend of folk and Americana. Forget the overproduction, the pro-tools, and the auto-tune, strip music down to its most raw, basic level and let it carry its own weight and speak for itself. Not to mention the guest appearance of John C. Reilly…yes, that John C. Reilly. Shake and bake. However, the best part of the evening was yet to come. Right before their set ended, they announced that they would continue the party at the even more intimate space next door, appropriately named “The Little Room”. We sat within inches of the Watkins siblings, John C. Reilly, Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, and the one and only Brad Mehldau (whose surprise showing caused quite a stir among the folks on stage). A bit of a disclaimer: the correct spelling is indeed “Mehldau”, the spelling on the note depicted is incorrect.
No words needed
They performed originals, old gospel tunes, and covered artists ranging from Johnny Cash to Weezer. Amazing. We seriously couldn’t believe that we were fortunate enough to witness what we saw that night. It served as a good reminder of what music is truly about - connecting with people at the gut level and leaving them with something meaningful to hold onto.
***Disclaimer: This blog was written last week, so we apologize for the lag in our updates…
Everyone in the world,
Some would say that karaoke brings friends and strangers together, and takes them on a magical ride through cheesiness and sheer awesomeness…and some would be correct.Last night Steve, Jim and I went to a karaoke bar in San Jose, CA.It was such an awesome time of just relaxing and having fun.It was exactly what I needed.While on tour I think it is essential to participate in non-band related things and just unwind.It helps take the stress away.Needless to say, we had a great time.
Karaoke Place...
Today was a busy day.We had two interviews in San Francisco, one of them being at a TV station and the other over G-Chat.The TV interview was for MYX and I have to say it went really well.I always get a little nervous when we do interviews/performance on TV because I never know where to look.I try to let my eyes wonder everywhere except for where the camera is but somehow I always let my gaze land on the camera.It’s so weird.Plus, when you’re doing a performance they are constantly moving the cameras, which makes me want to look at what is going on in periphery thereby leading me to look at the camera again.I just can’t win on TV.But thanks to editing magic I’m sure the station will make it work.Check out the pics of the studio below.
Studio!!
This was the greenroom we had at the studio...pretty nice.
After the interview we set out in the city to find food and a coffee shop to do our G-Chat interview.We found a Peet’s Coffee and camped out in the corner for the interview.Once it was done, all of us were starving so we started looking for food.I guess we were just in the coffee shop section of San Francisco because literally that’s all there was for like the surrounding 5 blocks.It was that or a super expensive steakhouse that’s perfect for struggling musicians to eat at….PSYCH!! (that’s right, I’m bringing it back.)So we set out to find somewhere to eat.We found an Italian place online, but it was over a mile away.But we were determined so we set out.After the lovely stroll along sidewalk beach (not) we arrived at the Italian place to find out that they had adopted the same menu prices as the expense steak houses.So we searched some more and found a Chinese place and an Afghan place.I had Chinese and it was a lot of mediocre food for a little bit of money (so basically it was perfect for someone like me).Then after dinner we had to take the long walk back to the van (at least we burned some calories!!).
Like I said it was a busy day.Perhaps it’s time for Karaoke again!!
**Disclaimer: This blog was written over a week ago, we apologize for the lag in our updates…
Ikea
So I’m writing to you right now from the middle seat in our van. I spend so much time in this seat, that I can’t remember a time when I didn’t sit in it.Travel the country playing music and it’s a given that you will have to spend a lot of time in the same seat.
Right before we left for this tour, we were back in the studio tracking some stuff for our new album.We literally lived in the studio for almost a week
before we left.The good thing about being on the road with the band is that we are able to work on the recording and discuss ideas all the time.I wish we had a studio in every town we play a show, but that would be crazy expensive.The solution: set up a mobile studio in the van.It’s so amazingly ghetto, but it gets the job done.
*Disclaimer: this entry was written last week, so we apologize for the lag in our updates…
Greetings from rainy Southern California!So far, it has rained in Cali every single day we’ve been here.Not like peaceful rain either, the treacherous downpour rain.And the one thing that I have discovered about LA and rain, is that the locals don’t know how to drive in it.It’s like they don’t know what this liquid is falling from the sky.Thankfully we haven’t gotten into an accident.Fingers crossed.
So earlier this week, we played at The Living Room on Loyola Marymount’s campus.The turnout was great for our first time playing there.
After the show a couple of girls gave us goodie bags with our names on them, which included a personal note and a brownie.Thanks girls!
It has been great to enjoy some free time on the West Coast. One of our favorite pastimes is eating. I have to say to everyone who has not tried it, go eat some Korean BBQ.It was amazing and all you can eat!
After dinner, most of us went to Guppy House, which is a like fruit and shaved ice place. Jim went to the famed Watkins’ Family Hour at The Largo with our road manager, Steve, and our manager, Jack.I kind of wish I had been there because they all said it was one of the best shows they had ever seen.
Next week we head off to Northern California and then on up towards the Seattle area. . . . Hopefully we will see some sun at least one of those days.
Greetings. So many things have happened since we hit the road last Wednesday. Our first stop was in Austin. We weren’t sure what the crowd would be like with the city being an entirely new market and all, but were pleasantly surprised to see the venue packed when our set started. After the show, some folks invited us to their place for some steaks - which were incredible (thanks Chris Lu and company)! Next was Houston where we had two stops. We had a feeling that they were going to be great shows since we’d played at both churches before, and our expectations were more than met - thanks FBCC and HCC!
After Houston, we started the long trek to Los Angeles, with a pit stop in San Antonio for breakfast burritos (courtesy of our road manager Steve’s Uncle Jim). During our lovely breakfast, Uncle Jim proceeded to inform us of a recent incident that occurred in one of the cities we would be passing through. This incident involved a man en route to Los Angeles, his car, and burning flames, which were not accidental. Needless to say, we stayed pretty alert during the next 7000 hours to California. We took some pictures of the scenery for your viewing pleasure. During this trip, we unknowingly came to a border patrol checkpoint and were momentarily excited at the prospect of our tour becoming international….But the only border we got to cross was into New Mexico.
In short, 22 hours after leaving San Antonio, we arrived at Andrew’s sister’s place in Irvine and crashed for a few minutes before getting ready for our first show in Los Angeles (which was this past Monday). We’ll post more about our time in CA soon, so until next time…
So we have officially been driving the van for 24 hours. Nothing exciting has really happened except for the massive fallen Super 8 sign we found near a Tennessee gas station.
We’ve been trying to eat healthy so we bought a large bag of baby carrots and a tub of Spinach from Sam’s club. Steve (our road manager) brought one of those water boilers you can plug in. We tried plugging it in to the van so we could cook the Spinach and we ended up blowing up the outlet. Apparently the cigarette lighters in a vehicle can only deliver 300 watts of power. The water boiler needed 1000 watts. Oops.
We finally got a fancy GPS guide that speaks to us with a British accent. Sometimes she gets angry at us when we deviate from her appointed route and says “recalculating route” with such frustration we have simply learned to obey. We haven’t figured out how to lower the volume, so until then, she is in charge.
Personally, I have given up movies and television for the year, so it’s back to the written word for me. I haven’t really read anything in years, so it’s been good to know that I am still literate. I am currently reading:
A Time to Kill (John Grisham)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (Mark Haddon)
We are now napping/blogging at the hotel in Austin, TX before we have to get to the venue at 3pm. I am going to sleep now because Parker and Steve are breathing so loud I can’t concentrate anymore.
Well friends - it’s been too long since we updated this, so here we (I) go. Tomorrow marks the first day of our winter tour, and I cannot begin to tell you how excited and anxious we are. Though we’re scheduled to leave Charlottesville at 8 am (to make it to Austin, TX by 4 pm on Thursday - ugh), I’ve only begun to pack…good times. We’re excited about seeing old friends, new friends, and future friends! And to add to the already high levels of excitement, we’ll be traversing around the country in a new(er) van!!! For those of you who’ve seen our beloved Dodge Ramwagon, you know that pretty much anything is a step up; however, we will miss that old van. So in short, check out our myspace (www.myspace.com/timbetold) to see where we’ll be stopping, and if you’re free and able, please come out to see us and say hello!
Grace and peace,
Jim
P.S. We will be updating our blog more frequently during this tour, so be on the lookout for some sweet videos, pictures, and stories.
So yea, I think I win the award for most MIA. The reason I even thought of updating is because my Wordpress notification spammed me 100 times so I had to log in and put on some spam filters. Anyway, while I’m here, SO many things have happened since I last updated our blog. It’s been a crazy few months and I can’t even remember all that we did. We FINALLY released our EP and sent it out to the entire blogging world to review. We finally made it to some of the Southern states and did a mini tour from Atlanta to Texas. I’m not going to lie, Houston is hotter than heartburn.
Luan and I moved into a new apartment in ONE day after the tour and then I hopped on a plane to Italy for my best friend’s wedding. (Is that a movie?) Regan, our producer, also had her baby while we were gone. His name is Max and he sleeps alot. Speaking of which, it is alarming to me how many couples I know are popping out children. I have some fertile friends.
This past Friday, we played Friday’s After Five to a crowd of over 1,000 people. It was a lot of fun except when I got bit by a mosquito in the middle of a song that was a tribute to those who had died on 9/11. I was trying so hard not to scratch. Those little buggers are so annoying. (I don’t think I’ve ever used the word bugger before). I went to two church services this morning. You would think that would make me twice as spiritual, but I’m just twice as tired. I just finished a 3 hour nap while watching Ratatouille. Which reminds me, I have been on this culinary kick lately trying to experiment in making different types of foods. I’ve already mastered mac and cheese, baked chicken, steak, mashed potatoes, pork chops, vegetable purees, anything sauteed or stir fried. If this music thing doesn’t work out, look out for my new restaurant: Tim Be Tasty. …That sounds wrong.
Clearly my blogging material is considerably less profound and less visually stimulating, but I think I need to start this up again so you guys won’t forget about us.
