so i’ll be honest: i don’t have enough followers for a satisfying live-tweet. but that doesn’t mean i won’t tell the internet all about the exciting twelve hour drive from cincinnati to new york. and even though you’re one of maybe…7 people who read this blog, that doesn’t mean i’m not going to tell you some funny and/or poignant things too. starting with “INSANITY.”

we played a couple of shows with the full band this last weekend, and when we stayed with devin’s parents friday night, he told us about this workout tape he’d been doing called “INSANITY.” and maybe i’m just a skeptical chunker (i definitely am), but it seemed hauntingly similar to Tae-Bo. you got a new billy blanks dude shouting at you to do “mummy kicks” for an hour. and then i take your picture and put it on the internet. i may be fat, but at least i have a blog to make fun of skinny people.

this is fusion. uh, fuzion. FUSIAN. which i pronounce “eff you, cyan.” because that color is bad. and yeah, i know what you’re thinking – “Jimmie…don’t go in that obviously market-researched, modern, branded, terrible bistro. It will be expensive, terrible, and not filling.” well guess what? wrong.

FUSIAN is a two-of in Cincinnati that makes the best sushi I’ve ever had. they make it subway style, right in front of you, and even though a premium roll is $6.50 (which is still very, very cheap), it is as much food as two normal rolls. now i know the sushi snobs out there are reeling, “but REAL sushi is a pile of rice with raw fish on it.” fine. you eat that sushi, i’ll have the shit covered in what looks to be mayonnaise. anyway, if you could – please harass them on twitter until they open one in Madison. thank you (@EATFUSIAN).

Cincinnati is completely awesome. my favorite part is definitely Over-the-Rhine, believed to be the largest intact historic urban district in the United States. this is just the edge – there are better shots on google image search, but this one has the van in it. hell yeah.

speaking of vans, i want to talk about this one a little bit.

you remember this guy? if so, you get 40 indie street cred points. i think you can spend them at urban outfitters. no, but really this van was our ride for a year, during what Daniel and i call “the dark winter.” daniel still keeps a piece of it attached to the front of his piano, and for a reason. it taught us a life lesson that will guide us for years to come. we call it “the rusty rule.” like the golden rule, but way more rusty. here it is:

if it could take you somewhere better, it won’t unless you own it.

i’m certain that if you apply this rule to your life, you will be a very successful and probably happy person. this trip to NYC has got me thinking about it again. you see, before we got that van, our prior one had broken down. and we were about to be very, very poor. we were going to be sharing an efficiency in chicago, working shitty jobs, saving money to pay back album debt, and shopping at aldi for flour to make bread each day. like…real poor.

we were vanless and had two options. either we took out a loan on a decent van, and paid it back slowly, or we bought a really really shitty one. we decided to buy the one above, and just like that we had ourselves “THE BEAST.” the bottom was completely rusted out. the shocks were almost non-existent. there was no heat. the seats were stripped, and there was no floor in many places. but it was $600. and it allowed us to save enough money to get on our feet in six short months. we would have lost so much money if we had taken out a loan, we likely would have put ourselves back in the place we had started.

but that’s not all. Daniel sold the van for $1,000. and before he did, he learned to fix so many things on the van himself, that he’s saved us over $2,000 in mechanical labor since then. most of all, it got us right where we wanted to go (that is, the “sweet teeth” phase of our lives). and that makes all the difference. if we had done it another way, we may not be where we are now. same goes for my songs, my creativity – it could not help me if i didn’t own it. same goes for you.

so own yourself. because you are all you have that is truly wonderful. and you are enough. when you open your mouth to sing, or ready your hand to draw. when you sit down at the desk, or when you look into the mirror – you are always enough. don’t let anyone own the pieces of yourself. otherwise, you might not be able to do silly things like figure out a song on the ukulele while daniel fills the tank at a random gas station in indiana and then put it on the internet. and if you don’t get to make that decision, you’re fucked. <3

i’m lying in bed, typing this on my phone. to think that one day it would come to this. blogging on your phone. neither existed only…(checking wikipedia, fuck SOPA)…150 years ago.

150 years and we have phones and blogging and barely any paper. spent almost 20 minutes looking for a piece today. this world is so bizarre.

this is my home. been hanging here for a week or so, writing, playing some dungeons and dragons. got a pretty sweet desert campaign goin on. trying to keep the morale up, what with the cold. been working with a full band too.

it’s been good playing with the full band, and i’m looking forward to the two shows we’re playing with them this weekend. our first show at the come back was actually pretty fun. i haven’t played a bar show in a while. the rules are way different, and the room came alive. especially our incredible roommate derek – there was a lot of the room in him.

before the show he lost his job, so later he got drunk, walked home, and told us the story of the French-Indian war. needless to say, i love him lots.

we’re very excited to go to new york. i finished some new songs, so we spent a couple of days in the studio laying down demos of them. the new studio is very nice. it has things in it.

that’s amp mountain. it’s made of amps. i didn’t use any for the demos, just kinda looked at them. i play the gentle guitar. here’s a very important picture from any studio: knobs.

knobs are so great. they turn and then they can also turn the other way. our permaproducer dan mcmahon fuckin turns them so good. when i sing bad, he just turns them and boom, everything’s better.

alright…i’m falling asleep. before i go, here’s the lyrics to a song i wrote a few weeks ago about not being able to sleep because you’re thinking about death, or you have what i call, a case of “death head.” it actually is really upbeat sounding, i promise. see you guys soon. <3

DEATH HEAD

maybe there’s nothing from
to hide
with my baby by my side
my baby by my side

but lately he sleeps with us
at night
with his scythe inside my mind
his scythe inside my mind

and he don’t want my money, no
he don’t want my money, no
he don’t want my money, no

she says “it’s nothin,
go to bed.”
but there’s no sleeping with death head
no sleeping with death head

cause he tells ya who he’s met
and when he’s through
say’s “i’ll see you when i do,
yeah, i’ll see you when i do.”

and he don’t want my money, no
he don’t want my money, no
he don’t want my money, no

it seems we don’t get to say the things we want about a person until they’re gone. and that’s just terrible. i guess i just didn’t expect her to go so soon. well, i’m gonna say them anyway. this post is personal. my friend died.

charlotte. you were better than me in every way. you came along and taught me what it means to be badass. watching you play bass with your dad was the most impacting music experience of my life. i will think of you in sunsets, drink of you in whiskey, and sing of you right where you belong – against the sweet low hush of an amp turned way, way up. i love you, charlotte.

let’s write that song someday.

hi everyone. happy holidays and stuff! hope you’re all staying warm in your coats and new socks and underwear and things. i’m protesting that shit until there’s snow on the ground. well, not underwear, but the coat for sure.

GESS WAT WEER GOING TO KNEW YORKE.

i’ve actually never been. most of you don’t know this, but i was incredibly close to moving there with my friend matt when i was 19. we were gonna play music there and stuff. but then i started having this recurring nightmare where i died in front of the new york skyline, and i’d have it every night until i started sleeping on the couch. so i didn’t go. there’s more to the story, but that’s the gist.

but now we’re going, and we’re playing a pretty swanky place. i’m excited to go and meet some record label dudes and sign away my soul. all i’m packing is a pen!

oh, and look at these fucking hipsters.

look at that low pixel hipster-ass instagram faded-ass picture. these dudes played with us at the bon iver tribute show, and now they’re gonna play some regular shows too. hells yeah. our first full band show is going to be IN MADISON THIS FRIDAY at The Come Back In at 9pm, and it’s free, and we’re gonna play for a long ass time, and it’s going to be wonderful. so come hear us play the daniel and the lion hits, as well as some bon iver songs too, cause we know them all and they’re nice. oh, and we learned some drake and some black keys.

alright so, i’m gonna leave you with the tour dates but before that i’ve got some kewl news about our next recording project. i can’t tell you a lot though. gotta have some secrets. i can tell you that we went right into the studio on the day after christmas, and recorded an AWESOME song. and i can tell you that this man was a big part of it. MEET SOMEONE AWESOME:

this is corey hart. he is awesome. not only is he my favorite madison singer-songwriter, but also he is a very smart, sensitive, and kind friend. and i got to write a song with him. how great is that. coming at you soon. for now, here’s a behind the scenes look at the writing process, and our new york tour schedule. see you soon!

THE NEW YORK TOUR
(check our tour page for details, or check back here soon.)

Friday, January 6th – Madison, WI @ The Come Back In, 9:30 PM [FULL BAND]

Tuesday, January 17th – Rockford, IL @ The Adriatic w/ Miles Nielsen, 9:00 PM

Thursday, January 19th – Winona, MN @ Winona State, 8:30 PM

Friday, January 20th – Oshkosh, WI @ Peabody’s, 10:00 PM [FULL BAND]

Saturday, January 21st – Sheboygan, WI @ The Green Room, 10:00 PM [FULL BAND]

Tuesday, January 24th – Cincinnati, OH @ The Cincinnati Art Institute, 8:30 PM

Wednesday, January 25th – New York, NY @ Rockwood Music Hall, 7:00 PM

Sunday, January 29th – Chicago, IL @ Entertaining Julia (The Town Hall Pub), 10:00 PM

hells yeah, kriksmas. you thought we were done touring? GUESS AGAIN.

REALITY IS REAL. that’s right, we’re going to play a christmas tour of christmas music at a bunch of christmas shows/parties, and one of them is probably in your town. and you’re going to go because you’ll get to wear ugly clothes. and that is the glue that binds our generation. ugly clothes. don’t question it.

also, we’re releasing our first christmas album RIGHT NOW. it’s called “the christmas album.”

you can get it at our christmas store, which is right here. just purchase anything at the store and you get the album immediately for free as a little bonus. or you can think of the thing you get at the store as the little bonus, whichever. regardless, this is the only way to get the album, so head on over and get your mother our cd for goodness sake (we’ll wrap the packages too, if you want). go ahead and listen to the single off it, an original tune called “ukulele christmas,” here. unfortunately, we’re not doing any black friday discounts because it’s saturday and our shit is awesome. in fact, i’m gonna go make everything cost $60 more. brb.

so on this tour, we’re not just gonna be playing christmas songs and wearing ugly sweaters. we’ll be taking requests too, cause i’m pretty sure daniel knows all the kriksmas songs. i’ll make an old-man book of them and have spectacles. it’ll be like the holidays with your annoying guitar loving uncle, only it’s me, and you can drink booze. see you there.

THE OFFICIAL UGLY SWEATY CHRISTMAS PARTY TOUR
(check back in soon for details, or message me directly.)

Thursday, December 8th – Green Bay, WI @ UW Green Bay

Friday, December 9th – Madison, WI @ Johnson Public House

Sunday, December 11th – Chicago, IL @ Uncommon Ground (Devon)

Tuesday, December 13th – Rockford, IL @ Mary’s Market

Thursday, December 15th – Dekalb, IL @ The House Cafe

Friday, December 16th – Rock Island, IL @ Rock Island Community Center

Saturday, December 17th – Kansas City, MO @ TBA

Sunday, December 18th – Omaha, NE @ The Barley St. Tavern

Monday, December 19th – Iowa City, IA @ The Mill

Tuesday, December 20th – Baraboo, WI @ UW-Baraboo/Sauk County

Wednesday, December 21st – Tomah, WI @ Book Bog

Thursday, December 22nd – Oshkosh, WI @ Becket’s

Friday, December 23rd – Wausau, WI @ Malarkey’s

i’m gonna start this blog off with a mini-celebration of good food. cause i wanna. cause i’m fat and i can. and cause we’ve had a chance to drive all over, and guess what – there’s a lot of it in the midwest. in gas stations. no, really.

this is gas station food. no, REALLY. welcome to oklahoma joe’s in kansas city, home to the best barbecue in the world. literally. as in, there is literature on it.

this is a gas station, and according to anthony bourdain, one of the 13 places you have to eat at before you die. we got the ribs, and devoured them quickly. i should note – daniel goes into beast mode whenever he’s eating meat. it’s incredibly scary and bizarre. he eats twice as fast and has the look of murder in his eyes. sadly, he doesn’t clean the bones like a fat kid.

my bones are on the left, his ravage on the right. scary, yes?

anyway, that wasn’t the only gas station food we hit up in missouri. some lady named dawn or ruthie or polly or something made homemade fudge at a gas station on the way to kansas city.

this was the best fudge that any of the four of us had ever eaten. dawthie should be proud of herself. and with flavors like peanut butter chocolate, butterfinger, cookies and cream, caramel praline and mint chocolate…well, let’s just say we had fudge for a few days (it lasted one day).

ok, before i end this food porn, let me tell you – these are the best wings we’d ever had. i know, i know, i’m the most superlative writer EVER, but it’s true. legend larry’s, in our own sheboygan, wisconsin, was home to a slew of the naughtiest and rounchiest sauces you could imagine. and we feasted in the dim like hungry, sith orcas.

alright, done with food. let’s talk a little about tour! we stopped by st. louis, but it seemed to be having some problems of its own.

needless to say, it was good after six days in new cities to come home for our much anticipated (by us) second annual “good winter” bon iver tribute show. it’s called “good winter” because vernon named his band bon iver after an episode of northern exposure where everyone celebrates the first snowfall of the year by going out and greeting each other in the street with “bon iver!” and of course, because i am a wizard capable of changing the weather, i made it snow for the first time on the day of the show.

that happened. then this happened. BOOMSHAKALAKA:

these baraboo cats are 5/6 of madison music collective PHOX, and were one of the 37 opening bands we had play the good winter show. and my, were they beautiful. the show was perfect, and i think, really lived up to the buzz. makes me proud to have such talented friends. here’s PHOX covering one of my favorite songs, waste, by foster the people. <3

tour. hit it.

we kicked off the tour driving into the most beautiful sunset i’ve seen. plums and tangerines and a whole lot of colors and feelings that defy pictures or words. it was a good start, and would continue each day as the sun fell quicker and we continued into the west, toward omaha on the edge of our route. but first, iowa city, and the mill.

the mill feels a bit like a more intimate rathskeller, for those who know the madison space. while we loaded in, sam, the sound guy, cracked jokes about music and talked to us about neil hamburger, who had played the night before. turns out, neil is on a schedule very similar to ours and we’re basically playing in his hamburgerey wake across the midwest.

as the show took form, i started to get worried. the last time we played, there were at least 20 fans and friends at the show, and this time only a handful who knew our music showed up. i don’t really know how to stay in touch with people about shows these days. luckily, the local act, stinky jones, was kind enough to bring all their friends along. their singer, mark, chatted with us about music and life.

despite the small crowd, we had a lovely show. actually, i prefer smaller crowds, as it lets us play our quieter, better tunes. we met a lot of new folks, and got a great barbecue suggestion for when we’d be in kansas city (we took the suggestion, more on that later).

we stayed with our friend bree, who had a siberian husky puppy. it would howl, i’m guessing at the moon, every once in a while.

before we left town, we made sure to stop by our favorite record shop in IC and drop off a few vinyl. turning onto the street, we saw the most baller park job of all time.

i guess when you deliver subs, you just gotta get there fast.

by the time we hit the road again, it was another sunset midwest horizon drive. can’t complain. dialed up bon iver, bon iver and drove toward des moines for our first show in the new city.

now, i feel comfortable saying des moines was the low part of the tour so far. i try to be as honest as i can on here, and i know none of you would believe a single word i said if i said touring was all apples and snowflakes. let’s start with the venue.

the fremont was a dive. even the people that did come out to the show seemed a bit sketched out. i don’t know if it’s the part of town or what, but it had something going on. luckily the bartender was nice, as was this dude.

this gentleman introduced himself to me as “Joey Sweetdick Hollywood” and assured us right from the start that we were in good hands. he directed us to the load in spot, helped us with sound, and even chatted with us about Slipknot, a band he worked with for years before they broke. then we found out he didn’t even work at the venue. no worries, he was a “Sweetdick” sort of dude, and mostly chatted our tour manager charlotte the whole evening. oh, charlotte. MEET SOMEONE AWESOME:

this charlotte. she is awesome. she is in a band called charlie and the cynics from oshkosh, and they’re amazing. they have a song called cowboy chords that makes me very happy. she’s on the road with us until thanksgiving, and she is a sweetheart. come to any show this month and chat her up, or buy her some whiskey. she enjoys that.

so after the show, we didn’t have a place to sleep. that’s the worst. we went to an all night mexican diner and slept in shifts on the booths for a few hours, basically wasting time until the sun came up. i had about 1.5 hours of sleep. we got starbucks, and we weren’t happy about it.

that’s ryley crowe. he’s drumming with us on a few shows. i’ll talk more about him soon – all you need to know for now is that he’s a total badass.

so yeah, we look fucking tired. and we were. and it’s hard to get work done when you’re super exhausted, so instead we bought settlers of catan. well, we wanted to buy it, but it was $48. and we made $15 the night before. so we just made our own ghetto version. i call it “settlers of dominaria.”

it’s basically settlers of catan made from magic cards. instead of resources like ore, bricks, and sheep, you generate mana: black, red, blue, etc. we’re adding a spell deck with new effects – if you want to play sometime, come hang out sometime when we’re back in madison. it’s good stuff. and a lot cheaper than the actual game.

we drove past the capitol building on the way out of town and had to stop and take a picture. des moines is the seat of the campaign trail every presidential election, because of the iowa caucuses, and every person i met said it was the worst part about living there. go figure, americans hate their government.

we split for ames, where we played at the ames progressive, a little community art space.

it was a tight squeeze, but we played with our friends in statue of liberty, as well as a band from minneapolis who agreed to vinyl swap with us (the best thing ever).

des moines and ames were both new cities for us. we’ll come back through them, but as i’ve found touring, the first shows in new cities always prove the toughest, and these were no exception. of course they also provide the funniest stories, so be sure to ask us in person and we’ll elaborate.

off to omaha. we arrived in town early enough to hit up omaha’s only packer bar, which was obviously packed to watch them hold on to a lead in the last seconds against the chargers.

right, so it was a lonely victory. but the few of us celebrated together, and that’s all that matters. we split for the house of loom after the game, and man, they had so many candles.

i love candles. we got to play the show with john klemmensen, guitarist for landing on the moon, and a close friend of ours. he had a sweet new puppy too. so many puppies.

ok, ok. enough puppies. but seriously, they’re really cute, right? ok. i love omaha. so much so that after the show, we went with two of our friends there, rick and jeremy, to the studio they work at to talk to them about possibly working on our next record there.

these dudes were amazing, and the studio was absolutely insane. built in the 70′s for a kid’s 18th birthday. insane.

and we recorded a little video there too, of a new song, lavender. enjoy <3

we just finished 35 shows in 35 days, and i only got sick once, which means…well, i guess it means i have ninjas instead of white blood cells. i’m pretty sure i can feel them running up and down my veins, slashing apart viruses in epic iajutsu duels.

i learned a lot on this tour, in my personal life as well as in my profession, my art, and the world of music. the biggest thing i learned is that they’re actually all the same. if you separate who you are from what you do, you’ll never find happiness. lately, i’ve been spending a lot more time meeting the people who make the music i love and respect (which i’ll get to in a bit), learning from them, and thanking them. and playing dixit with them, obv.

dixit is a french game that won board game of the year last year. it’s kind of like apples to apples with paintings instead of words. and the way the scoring works, no one gets tilted. since i’m the guy who always flips the table when he loses apples to apples, i enjoy dixit much more. check it out and support your local games store. unless they don’t have it; then you should curse at them in french, and support your local Internet.

VAN LOL is off to hibernate for the winter, while we set out on our furthest tour to date. 20 days in over 10 new cities, from Omaha to Cleveland to Nashville. van small will be assisting us, and will be drinking much fewer dinosaurs. actually, Daniel is packing it right now, so i have to go and help. i’ll leave you with a crazy story.

touring is bizarre. nothing is normal, yet nothing is out of the ordinary. which is why when we heard that one of our favorite songwriters, north-west coast native Noah Gundersen, was playing only 5 minutes from us in rockford ON THE SAME NIGHT AS US last week, we were stunned…and at the same time not. sometimes the weirdest shit happens. what can you do? well, you can meet your heroes. we did. MEET SOMEONE AWESOME:

this is Noah Gundersen. he is one of my heroes, and currently, in my humble opinion, the very best young american songwriter. i could tell you how fucking mind-blowingly great he is, or i could just let you listen to his new song “cigarettes,” and then tell you to get every single song he’s ever written. they’re all on iTunes or spotify or whatever you use. fuckin a. dude is insane. he is also, get this, VERY nice. so go meet your heroes. it’s always worth it. <3

the time comes to grow. it’s scary, touring in new cities. you often have to sleep in the van, and you don’t know anyone. but meeting new people is a lovely thing, right? well, it is.

below, i’ve listed our november tour. we’ll be releasing our vinyl all over the midwest, playing a slew of new cities that i’ve never even been to. we’re very much looking forward to it. if you know someone in any of these cities, please, tell them to come see us, or if you do yourself, come on out and give me a hug. thank you so so much. <3

NOVEMBER TOUR:
(for more detailed show info, check back in a few days)

Thursday, November 3rd - Iowa City, IA @ The Mill

Friday, November 4th - Des Moines, IA @ The Fremont

Saturday, November 5th - Ames, IA @ The Ames Progressive

Sunday, November 6th - Omaha, NE @ The House of Loom

Monday, November 7th - Kansas City, MO @ The Czar Bar

Tuesday, November 8th - St. Louis, MO @ Cicero's

Wednesday, November 9th – Madison, WI @ “Good Winter” Bon Iver Tribute at The Project Lodge

Thursday, November 10th – Green Bay, WI @ Ledgestone Vineyards

Friday, November 11th – Madison, WI @ Private Event

Saturday, November 12th – Sheboygan, WI @ The Green Room

Sunday, November 13th – Holland, MI @ Lemonjello’s

Monday, November 14th – Grand Rapids, MI @ TBA

Tuesday, November 15th – Ann Arbor, MI @ House Show

Wednesday, November 16th – Cleveland, OH @ TBA

Thursday, November 17th – Bloomington, IN @ Rachel’s Cafe

Friday, November 18th – Cincinnati, OH @ Baba Budan’s

Saturday, November 19th – Terre Haute, IN @ The Verve

Monday, November 21st – Nashville, TN @ House Show

Tuesday, November 22nd – Nashville, TN @ TBA

it’s been a rough week for me. i’m not gonna get into the details too much, but if you see me, you can hug me, and i won’t mind. it’s relevant to mention though, because we all go through tough shit, and it’s nice to be able to know you’re not alone. i also think music, of all the things in life, has a wonderfully unique power to heal, and for me there have always been just two artists who get me through the shit. one is donovan woods, and the other is bon iver.

when i first discovered “for emma, forever ago” i was a mess. i was heartbroken and lost. i needed to heal, and the album was like a blood-letting. after four months and a long, long winter of listening to nothing else, i emerged for the first time, healed. and i’m not the only one who felt the effect of justin vernon’s hibernation songs. the world caught wind of the record, and the rest is history.

last year, we played a very special show at the project lodge, below our apartment. we played the record start to finish, in celebration of the “good winter” ideal, that we are a community that can come through adversity, and emerge in a promising new spring. it was wonderful: our friends pearl and the beard were in attendance, and it was a night i’ll never forget.

so this year, we’re going to do it again.

on Wednesday, November 9th, at The Project Lodge in Madison, WI we’ll be playing our second annual “Good Winter” Bon Iver Tribute Show. only this time, we’re playing bon iver’s new self titled album. start to finish. and i want you to come and sing along, because there’s nothing that feels better in this world right now than this album.