Oh Claire!! (from 1/30/2010)

hidey ho! neigbor. we are coming down on the homestretch for our 2 week stint in the midwest. It has been very cold, but just like home pretty much.

our journey started in madison, wisconsin on MLK day, and was not a complete disaster. I mean, we got there, set up, played the show. We were fortunate to play to 2 people. We also had a good time. Michael Delorean has accompanied me throughout this trip, if you are just tuning in, he is my string'ed instrument extraordinaire. He plays cello on about 5 tunes, mandolin on 2 and electric guitar on 3 (i believe).

After Madison, we had a day off and I was SO SO SO fortunate to get in touch with a friend from college who lives in milwaukee. which was only just over an hour away from Madison (as well as an hour and change from our next show in Beloit, WI). He and his lovely wife Danielle welcomed us into their home for two days and nights, and we were well-rested, well-internetted, and well fed, (they even cooked us an amazing dinner). It was all capped off with a visit to Kopp's, a legendary fixture in the frozen custard industry in milwaukee. I also ended up writing a song in pretty quick fashion.

I woke up with this melody in my head. and it stuck with me, so I got up pretty quick, and went downstairs to grab my guitar and penned out the whole song within an hour. This is pretty rare (to write a song that quickly and truly finish it), but after sleeping on it and playing it periodically in the days after, it is finished and it is tentatively titled: "North Milwaukee" it's a pretty stripped down and slow acoustic number kind of in the vein of ben kweller (when I wrote the chorus). here are the lyrics:
____________________________________________________________________

North Milwaukee

I got a postcard from my brother
looks like the boys began to grow
I got an invoice from another
and then some tears began to flow

I tried to be a New York Ranger
but they said I'm much too slow
I sold a textbook to a stranger
and then the dumb began to know

I'm sorry yesterday I missed your call
Maybe when we get back home
I can kiss your eyes and recognize
that without you I am alone

i scored a gig in north Milwaukee
and then my drummer didn't show
seems he was getting kinda cocky
and then he drank and hit the floor

got written up for 15 over
but still was driving pretty slow
I hit a 'dillo down in Houston
and now it's lunch time for a crow

I'm sorry yesterday I missed your call
Maybe when we get back home
I can kiss your eyes and recognize
that without you I am alone

I drove my tank right down to empty
and then I really had to go
I got my haircut by a lefty
and then my years began to show

__________________________________________________________________

before leaving milwaukee, I had to spend a little time with my friend, Rose, who goes to Marquette. I pursued Marquette University as a possible place to play when I found out that she went to school there, and was lucky enough to get 3 shows there the past 3 semesters. As it happens it just didn't work out this time around, but she was soo awesome about helping me promote my shows with all of her friends and she brought in crowds to see me at the Annex, which is a really cool place to play. and if you search back through previous blogs, then you'll see how much other fun I had while hanging with her and her peeps on previous visits. We just walked down to a little empty bar, had a beer, and that was it. but it was nice to catch up. and her drunk friend brought to my attention the School of the Americas (which I am not going to touch on, cos that's another debate) but it's some intriguing stuff nonetheless. I never had heard of it or its controversy before this night.

We made our way from Milwaukee to Beloit to play the college there (the caughy haus) for the first time. I nice downstairs, dingy, dark kinda place, but with tons of character. We set it up and rocked it the best we could and there was a nice little crowd there. I'd like to thank Kyle for making that happen with us, cos we really enjoyed it. Hope we can swing back through next time.

This was the tough night. we left Beloit around midnight and had an early NOON show at southern illinois university (and had to be there by 11AM) so we booked it from there and drove into the night. Mike was nice enough to sleep the entire time as I got drowsy and really helped me to stay awake by being annoyed. Also the sunflower seeds helped as they always do (thanks bro), and we made it to about 2 hours north of edwardsville and I had to pull over so we wouldn't die (at least from a driving accident). we awoke around 9am (surprising, since we were sleeping in a car) and got some quick wendy's breakfast (yes they have breakfast now, it's hot or miss) and moved. We also hadn't seen the sun since we left Michigan and it was raining pretty steadily all night the previous night and all day Thursday (our show). We arrived at SIU just a bit tardy after 11am and quickly loaded in and got set up. Thanks to Jesika for helping us get situated and also thanks to Emalie for booking us!

It was one of those nice lunch time hour gigs in the middle of the student center where people are just hanging out, or eating, or studying, and we were a bit wired, and tired at the same time, but played a pretty good show. then Jesika hooked us up with a nice lunch and they put us up in a hotel for the night, and we found it and hit sheets for a few hours.

(sorry I'm so behind, I'm just gonna keep rolling with this...)

After that night we headed up to Chicago. The couch crashing gods were with us again, as I have a friend who lives in a pimp house in chicago. turns out he and his wife were going to florida for the weekend, and we happened to need a place to stay for the weekend AND they needed someone to watch after their pets and we were very happy to oblige. We got to stay from friday til monday morning. What a huge gesture that they let us crash and it was just a huge help to us on the road saving money and living in great comfort.

NOW, this is why I'm not going to ....Chicago.... every again. we were playing our show at uncommon ground. let's recap first. Two visits ago, I had a little incident where there was a fender bender (which is an overstatement) and this guy caused me to make an insurance claim while I was on the way to my show at IL State and ended up being late. Last visit to chicago, car broken into at night, instruments stolen, had a show in milwaukee that night and had to sort everything out on this rainy day, and made it to milwaukee for the show, new window, police report, insurance claim, new instruments, etc. Big fucking annoying ordeal. Now onto this visit. playing our show at uncommon ground. everything was going well, we played a great show. Matt Crews brought in a lot of people himself so we got to play in front of a nice crowd. We were hanging out afterward with one of Mike's friends and about to leave. so I go to grab the car a few blocks away, bam, broken window again! glove box ransacked. they got my Nav, xm radio, and Mike's iPod. Fuckers!

so that's 3 visits to chicago in a row where I have had to make a claim with my insurance company and they don't actually reimburse you for personal belongings that you had in your car, just the car damage only, so anyway... NEVER GOING TO ....CHICAGO.... - INDEFINITELY. we are not on a break. we are over.

SO onto greener pastures, and by greener I mean much colder. We headed up to minneapolis where my friend, Gayle, lives and she has been so gracious as to put us up for a couple of nights earlier this week. we came on monday, just to cut our drive to North Dakota the next day to 9 HOURS. CUT THAT DRIVE DOWN TO 9 HOURS.

We left early and made it to Minot, ND at a reasonably evening hour. got a hotel room and before leaving wisconsin the last time, picked up a 6 pack of New Glarus honey bock beer for a special occasion. I guess north dakota was a special occasion. we ordered Domino's (They re-invented their recipe so we had to find out if it was better) and it WAS. I actually liked it and Domino's has always been my least favorite pizza joint, ranking above Sbarro at the shopping mall (not that I ever go to malls... just saying). so we enjoyed it very much and drank our beers, though I just found out right now that we still have a beer or two left in the cooler. fortunately it's been so fucking freezing that we just leave our food in the cooler with some ice and it doesn't even melt.

skip a couple of lounging days at Gayle's in MN and this brings us to last night, at the Acoustic Cafe in Winona, and we played really well I thought but there weren't too many people in the place, which was a shocker, cos every time I had been there before (which has been several; by that I mean 6-7 :) there had been many more people milling about. must have just been an off night. but fun nonetheless.

Today we are sitting at the Acoustic Cafe, though a different one, in Eau Claire, WI. I guess it's the same owners as the one in MN, and we're killing a little time before our final two shows this trip. 24 hours from now we will be driving back to MI and exhaling a bit to get back to our respective realities.

This could be the longest blog of my life, but only do to my sporadic blogging nature and neglect toward Myspace.

I'll end it here, and wish everyone to wear safe, hybrid boots which are fashionable but also prevent you from slipping on the ice, and stay warm, cos the spring is coming.

as always, piece out.

-jimmy