arizona livin'

i guess i haven't really written about phoenix since we've been here. let's see, where to start? well, we're getting a lot done out here. since we're living together and with tim as well, we really can't escape getting work done. writing the songs for this ep was really stressful, but we settled upon five really good ones in my opinion. we started recording with matt grabe two days ago, and after today's session all of the drums are complete. grabe's a really cool guy; he definitely does some stuff a little different, but he has a vision and everything has a purpose. i can't wait to hear these songs finished, i think they are head and shoulders better than any of our previous work, not to mention they are definitely way catchier. living at the office is kind of a pain; there is no tv, and we have to bring in and out our sleeping "gear" every day so as not to clutter working areas. but it's free, so i really can't complain. i'm definitely missing home. not just the idea of home, but all the little things about home, including my friends. tomorrow we hop back on the last two days of warped tour; i'm excited to see all of the new friends we made again. around the office we've been listening to a steady diet of a wide range of artists. miniature tigers and back ted-n-ted are two modern art artists that we've all really gotten into, they are awesome. taylor swift has been getting a good amount of spins, as have the new rocket to the moon and brighten cd's. new brighten really blows me away, it is freakin' awesome. that's all i got for now. hmmmm...

the dark knight

lovers in japan

finally in phoenix

warped tour is finally over for the goodnight anthem. we are now in phoenix, at our manager tim's office, which is actually a house, so this is where we will be living for a while. there is no tv here, i am absolutely devastated. i always have sportscenter on in the background, and its going to be weird not having that for a while. should be good times though, we're going to be getting a lot of work done. band camp, as tim is calling it. we're about to go grocery shopping, gonna be getting some pb and j and other tasty treats. we're also gonna try and pick up the newest issue of substream magazine. there is an article about us in it, so that will be exciting to see. there is lots of cool maine memorabilia hanging around the offices...it's going to be a good motivator/reminder of what can happen if we work hard. time to get to gettin, hopefully the taylor swift cd is done downloading by the time i'm done typing this. til' next time.

warped tour volume 2

boy, so much has happened since the last time i updated y'all ( i picked up that little number in the south). i'll try and remember everything since then. florida was, well, to be honest, miserable. it thunderstormed at least once a day, if not more. it was hot, sweaty, humid, and sticky. we did get to go to the bbq after st. petersburg though and that was a tooon of fun. met and hung out with lots of cool peeps. then we had a day off in atlanta and stayed with one of kurt's friends named morgan. very stereotypically southernly hospitable. yeah, i just made that up. deal with it. anyway, next day was warped in atlanta, which was hot, and it rained again at the end of the day. next day was cincinatti. can you guess what the weather was? YEAH, RAIN. AGAIN. THAT MADE IT EVERY DAY OF WARPED THAT IT RAINED. AWESOME! but yeah, i got to watch underoath with a clear view, and it was freakin' incredible. aaron gillespie absolutely killed it. like, jeezy beezy! next day was milwaukee. our tent was inside. which was great cuz it was nice and cool. it rained that day, too, btw. watched the maine close the day at 8:15, their crowd was nuts. much props to them, they are a very tight live band and the nicest dudes, too. today was detroit, at comerica park (where the tigers play), which was really awesome/beautiful. i tried to convince terry, the security guard sitting on the first base line, to let me run the bases and swing for the fences, but he wasn't having it. he must not have my rookie card yet...so now i'm in a hotel room watching wedding crashers. tired as hell. in other, unrelated news, i turn 21 in exactly two weeks. i'll be in arizona at the time, and will definitely be missing my friends at home, but i have a feeling it will be a fun time regardless. until next time, one love.

-max, aka m, aka doctor lobster, aka doc-lob

a picture of me dancing in the rain in atlanta. i don't remember wearing that suit, however...

warped tourrrrr

well, we're about a week into warped tour, and it's pretty much everything i thought it would be. so much to talk about. the official tour anthem is "do you know" by enrique iglesias (stop judging me). it's rained almost half the days. i hate rain. we've met a ton of really cool people. ryan from this century is really nice, super chill. we're primarily working with him for the majority of the tour. veto, the maine's merch guy, is the man; hanging with him all day has been entertaining for sure. the maine guys are all really down to earth, that's always cool to see. and the jac vanek tent has been next to us most of the days, they're real nice, hooked us up with tons of free stuff. so yeah, i haven't met too many uncool people. i haven't gotten to watch many bands though. i've seen the maine a few times, some of all time low, some of underoath, a bit of a day to remember haha. their crowds are probably the biggest of the tour, i had no idea they were so huge. i've watched innerpartysystem almost every day, they are INSANE. they should be playing arenas. i've also watched/heard gallows quite a few times. let's just say their singer has strong opinions on life and isn't afraid to share them. always entertaining. so yeah, we're about to head to florida and it should be totally hot and sweaty. we watched the temptations movie in our hotel last night. soooo long. interesting, but the unintentional comedy is off the charts. we decided that every character was played by wayne brady. amazing what you can do with cgi these days... so yeah, i'll try to write more whenever we get internet again.

some changes coming to the music scene. some good, some bad. i wish they could all be good, but i guess it can't work like that. if anything, though, history has shown this will work itself out for the better. hopefully this isn't the exception to that rule.

ps. many thanks to all of my well-wishers out there....

ice ice baby

last night was one of the strangest/coolest nights of my life. we played at the fillmore at irving plaza with vanilla ice, and it was pretty out there. first we got there, and a camera crew was filming everything...us loading in, us just standing around talking....kind of odd. then we waited around for a while and saw vanilla ice soundcheck. this guy is serious, he knows exactly what he wants, and he even was running sound for a while. i was pretty impressed. then we loaded onstage to soundcheck. after that, we were told to go outside, whereupon we were put inside a limo and driven around the block to make an appearance on the red carpet.....very strange, but very cool. so we played and it was strange but fun, and then waited and waited for v-ice to play. when he finally did, it was so worth it, he but on a hell of a show. he wasn't ashamed to play the old classics like ice ice baby and ninja rap, either. it's cool how he accpets that's a part of his past and embraces it and makes it part of his present. i'll say it again, one of the coolest yet strangest nights of my life without a doubt. ice ice baby.

mj

i've been watching michael jackson videos on mtv jams for the past few days non-stop. he wasn't the greatest singer of all time, he probably wasn't the greatest dancer of all time, but he was the best performer of all time, i would have to say. so much intensity. anyone who performs for people in any capacity can learn from him. it sucks his life became such a firestorm of controversary, and that to many younger people he's nothing more than a punchline or a caricature of himself. his true legacy as the king of pop will defnitely outlast the bad things though. in other news, we wrote a new song yesterday. it's the most rock song of our new demos so far for sure. we'll see how it turns out.

Twisted Sister

Jay Jay French from Twisted Sister once told me that when it comes to performing there are four ways your night can go.

1. The audience is lame, you play terribly, and you want to blow your brains out.

2. You play terribly, but the crowd is amazing, so you thank God for that.

3. The crowd sucks, but you play an awesome set, so who cares what they think.

4. The audience is amazing, you play the best show of your life, and that’s why you play music

so true.

computer is saved!

my computer is saved! runs like brand new! i had to pay a disgusting amount of money for that to happen, but it now works like a dream. time to upload all my music back onto it from my shiny new external hard drive, and then i'll be good to go. anyone who has any substantial music/picture/video collection - do yourself a favor now and buy an external hard drive and put it all on there. i've had to recollect all of my music two or three times in my life, and it really sucks. i finally wised up this time around, and i'm not putting myself through that torture. anyway, i'm gonna do that now, and there won't be one million and three pop-ups in the process.



p.s. after watching this movie again recently, brunette reese witherspoon may overtake rachel bilson on the hotness scale. i just don't know. i'll take either, actually.

touuuuuur

we leave for tour in two days, i can't wait!!!!! it's been waaaay tooooo looooong, and touring is a ton of fun. check out our myspace to see if you we're coming near you. i wish we going for longer, but we'll be doing more throughout the summer, so i guess i'll just treat this as a warmup. we also just found out who we're going to do our new ep with. and more importantly where we'll be doing it. i can't wait.

haha

putting my trust in someone i don't know...

i'm going to geek squad tomorrow and getting my laptop fixed. i'm shelling out the big bucks to get it totally eradicated of any and all viruses, trojan horses, malware, yadda yadda yadda. i will blog more once it is fixed. i promise. i promise myself. anyway, i'm watching seinfeld right now, and i love that show. you should too. i'm looking to meet a girl as funny as elaine benes. that would really impress me.

past weekend

well, this past weekend was suuuper busy, so let's recap it. friday, played in paramus, nj. for some reason, even though we've only played there once or twice, paramus holds many funny/random memories for tga. i couldn't tell you why, but we all just started remembering humerous things once we got there. oh, and the whole venue smelled like saurkraut. i do not like saurkraut. moving on....saturday was the much anticipated give it all you got fest in warrenton virginia. we are big fans of virginia, it seems to be a state who "gets it." we played on a basketball court. hopefully that is the last basketball court we ever have to play in (unless said basketball court is located in the confines of a professional arena). but it was cool to see pretty much every band we've ever toured with. so many vans and trailers in the parking lot, it felt like a mini warped tour. then sunday, we played in new jersey again, this time in vineland at hangar 84. this venue knows how to treat bands right. actually, the whole venue was just freakin awesome. green room fully stocked with food/drinks, ample room to set up/store equipment, immaculate sound (onstage and off). wow. maybe my favorite venue we've ever played. and now it is tuesday and we are really working hard on writing/demoing for the next ep we are going to record in early august. i cannot wait to record again. oh, and yesterday i watched the trailer for the beatles rock band. i have to have this when it comes out. i'm not even a big rock band/guitar hero guy, but this is just too awesome. so yeah, lots of info, hopefully you enjoyed that, i'll try and write more often to avoid mega-updates.

"if not for you, the winter would hold no spring."

-my man, george harrison. what a guy.

lean on me

how do you write such a timeless, universal song???

i miss playing shows. good thing we have a bunch coming up. in the meantime, i think i need to buy a new nhl 08 disc for xbox 360. i'm becoming very addicted to it again. i realize i don't write in this thing as much, but life's just kinda boring right now. i went to the beach, that was a ton of fun, no internet/computers/tv for three days. it was nice to drop out for a while. but now i'm back, writing about whatever flows into my mind. yyyyyep. livin'...

whoa...

i finally got around to watching the season finale of house today, and i am really blown away. after last season's epic ending, i thought it would be impossible to top. i'm not going to say this topped it, but it definitely came close. as lame as it sounds, i literally had chills up my spine when house realized what had happened. i won't go into more detail in case anyone still is waiting to see it, but i mean wow. just wow. anyway, back to the real world....our show with the audition was really great. lots of friends and familiar faces there. bq's frog appearance was hilarious, too; i'm stoked we got to do something fun/different at a hometown show. time to keep on working on new demos for a new ep that we are tentatively recording in the beginning of august. i can't believe nights to know you has been out about a year already. time flies.

the dust of retreat

on a freezing chicago street

how did that just happen?
did that even happen?
i don't know.
and i'm not going to pretend like i do...

show thursday (again)

show in west chester, with the scenic and the audition. please come. it will be raucous and out of control. i'm typing this at warp speed because i don't know when my internet will give out on me. anyway, i'm going to go try and watch the house episode i missed last night. wish me luck.

i hate pc's

i hate my computer. it gets a new and (not) fun virus like, every few months, no matter what precautions i take. i guess now is that time of the year again, because it is acting screwier than.....ah hell it's just acting screwy. i need to get a macbook as soon as i can. this could take a while, however. guess i'll just have to rough it with this dinosaur. i probably sound totally ungrateful and like an arrogant ass, but i'm just getting out all of my pent up frustration. anyway, on to happier things. the show at the barbary was real cool, even though the stage was TINY. makes me excited to play the note again in west chester this week. that will def be a lot of fun. it'll be good to play with the scenic again, too. that's all i got for right now, and for any mother that happens to stumble upon this little blog, happy mother's day.

want.

shooooow

show in the city tonight at the barbary with you me and everyone we know, anarbor, and forgive durden. everyone make sure they come on doooown. also we put up a whole new layout on myspace and the full version of american movie, so check it.

a picture of bill clinton meeting jfk. a real ladies man summit.

feels like new again

jim is filling in for us on bass this next month and it feels pretty wacky. oh well, it's good to have him back. show in the city on thursday at the barbary. i have no idea what this place is, but i hope that it's cool. i guess we'll see.

auto-tune the news.

"before they begin to rebound."

Golden slumbers kiss your eyes
Smiles awake when you rise
Sleep pretty wantons do not cry
And i will sing a lullaby

where i want to be

today i listened to a cd that i absolutely loved when it first came out, and found out that i still love it today. that cd is taking back sunday's where you want to be. i listened to that cd at least once a day for a good year straight, probably, and it definitely had a major impact on my musical life. as much as i like the cd for the music on it, it also takes me to a physical place that i love. i bought this record while in new york city, staying with one of my oldest childhood friends from when i lived in queens. i spent the week there, and it was just a great time. we hung out, went to times square, saw a yankees game, played stickball, played video games all night. the whole week was very liberating and freeing, as we had no real responsibilites other than to have fun together. as much as i love visiting new york city, however, i really do want to try living in a place like the hills of switzerland. i truly believe i could be happy living in the middle of huge field, beneath a large mountain, as long as i had a few of my closest friends along with me. the thought of totally disconnecting from the world seems so enticing. but alas, that simply won't work right now, so my dream is temporarily relegated to, well, my dreams. hopefully one day...

songs, songs, songs

weeee have been writing a song a day this week; writing, demoing, making up new catch phrases. "words" is now replacing the term "word." for example. "just finished that rhythm guitar track, i think it sounds really good." "words." we've got about five new songs in various stages of demo form, and i think there are probably some keepers in there. we'll see how many we end up with by the end of this week. in the good news department, it looks like we're going to get to keep our (sexy) new van. ::gets on knees and thanks god:: it's only tuesday afternoon but i feel like this week has already gone by. who knows what wednesday through friday will bring. lets hope its good. and now i will leave you all with this little tidbit.

the hills are alive...

switzerland.
i want to live in a place like this.

pennsylvania

show in altoona last night. pretty cool, unfortunately it was eli's last with us. he will be missed. good guy. then we went to penn state main campus, which was a zoo. we drove around for 25 minutes looking for somewhere to park the mighty van and trailor, and told some dude that we were we the kings, and he definitely believed us. today was spent hanging with bq corey tony and joe. it was a totally chillin time, and a really fun time at that. and just like that, the weekend is over, and back to the work week. major. bummer.

good week

tuesday, saw copeland. awesome. WEDNESDAY - went to the city early with tony to hang out with bq, corey and friends. walked around temple for spring fling. that was a lot of fun. at night, saw THIRD EYE BLIND live at the electric factory. what an awesome performance. stephen jenkins is quite the man. copeland and 3eb were very different, different styles of music, venues, etc etc, yet were both soooo great in their own respective ways. it was interesting, though, that for both sets, neither aaron marsh nor stephen jenkins really talked much in between songs. it was all about the music, and everyone seemed to appreciate that. then tonight, i finally saw frost/nixon, a movie i've been wanting to see since it came out. it did NOT dissapoint. such a great film, amazing how a movie about an interview could be so gripping and suspenseful. two hours felt like half an hour. this week has a been a great one. and its not even the weekend yet.

seeing copeland tonight.

i never go to concerts anymore just as a spectator, but tonight i'm going to see copeland, one of my favorite bands of all time. i cannot wait. honestly, i would rather skip all the bands playing before them, but you never know, they may be really good. anyway, this is one of my favorite songs off of their newest record. enjoy.

Grapevine Fires

genius.

Home Now.

whew, what weekend. after michigan's show i was pretty excited for illinois, and illinois did not disappoint. we met two very cool bands that night. the first was linden, and they were awesome guys and girls. the second was the summer set, and they were equally as awesome. hopefully we can meet up with them again and play some more shows. the show itself was really fun as well. the venue was a little odd....in a shopping center in the middle of nowhere next to a china buffet, but the crowd was rockin' nonetheless. the next day we spent driving home. and by day i mean all day and all night. it was brutal. watched the doors movie, it was all sorts of weird. not sure if i liked it. jim morisson seems to have been a troubled man. so now i'm home, on a full night's rest, thankful to not be in a van on a highway in the middle of nowhere. home sweet home.

props to michigan

today was a pretty great day. the weather was perfect. the show was sweet. i am now in a beautiful house and in a room that has a killer vibe. it is deep red, if that starts to give you an idea. wu-tang clan was playing at the venue after the show, and for some reason i was really enjoying it. the rizza, the jizza, meth, red, odb, man, what a wacky group of guys...tomorrow we're off to illinois, should be fun.




i thought this video was AWESOME when i was in fourth grade.

Everybody in the 313...

i am in michigan.  on 11 mile.  i think after everyone goes to sleep i'm gonna mosey on down to 8 mile and try and pick a battle with the thuggest lookin' g i can find.  wish me luck.

in the next few days we're going to be playing some shows in the miiidwest. first time for us tga boys together. looking forward to some flat roads. i also realized this funny little coincidence this morning. we'll be playing shows in michigan and illinois, the same two states sufjan stevens has made records for. looks like i know what i'll be listening to on my i-pod in the van. isn't life funny like that sometimes? isn't it?

....yes, yes it is.

so i've decided to throw my itunes on shuffle tonight and see what i get. i never do this, but tonight a voice in my head said it'd be fun and exciting, and it actually is pretty interesting so far. here's the results, with a little running commentary sprinkled in by yours truly.

jay-z - lucifer [white people are allowed to like rappers other than kanye west, right?]
blink-182 - easy target
the weepies - nobody knows me at all [still lovin' this band]
the shins - pressed in a book
the kooks - eddie's gun
lauryn hill - superstar
paramore - when it rains
copeland - you have my attention [an all-time favorite of mine]
coldplay - in my place [fun fact: whenever i do a soundcheck at a show, i play this song]
marvin gaye - god is love (b-side version)
green day - tight wad hill
city and colour - confessions [not to be confused with the usher song]
stevie wonder - all day sucker
eminem - criminal [yeah, i love eminem, wanna fight about it?]
vega under fire - boom boom
blink-182 - wasting time [despite some silly lines here and there, i find myself relating to this song a lot right now...]
the beatles - helter skelter [what has been dubbed by many as the first heavy metal song ever]
frank sinatra - for once in my life
margot & the nuclear so and so's - a sea chanty of sorts
circa survive - the great golden baby
john lennon - crippled inside
lil' wayne - tie my hands
underoath - you're ever so inviting [probably the musical opposite of the previous song]
my chemical romance - dead
the beach boys - i know there's an answer
fall out boy - dead on arrival
death cab for cutie - transatlanticism
the fray - fall away
the rolling stones - let it loose
traveling wilburys - she's my baby
kanye west - school spirit [what, i never said i didn't love me some kanye...]

and with that my journey ends. good night all.

who am i?

amen.

easter sunday

today, i did a whole bunch of nothing. oh, i did pay some bills. but other than that, nothing. watched the phillies, watching the departed. real lazy day. but that's ok, because everyone needs that once in a while i think. a day to just (as george costanza so humorously put it) decompress. soak in life for a minute and get ready to jump back in. i also had a really nice dinner made by none other than my pops. good eatin', as always. happy easter everyone. hope to see you soon.


put this up in my room recently. i'd like to go this place.

Virginia is for Lungers

last night we played a show in vienna virginia with the downtown fiction and a band called parachute. the show was really awesome, sold out in fact. our merch table has never been so hectic after a show, it was something else. then there was a big hangout at chipotle next door. that was pretty cool too. for the record, it is pronounced CHI-POTE-LAY (joe flack). just had to get that off my chest. anyway, virginia has a really supportive scene, can't wait to go back. speaking of joe flack, check out his new band, joe flack and flacktones. i hear they're signed to a major label. i hope he doesn't quit our band and do the flacktones full time. that would womp.

BEAUTIFUL DAY!

I've missed a day.

sorry, sorry to anyone who cares (mostly myself) for missing an entire day of bloggage. i was shooting for one a day every day, and i've already failed. anyway, enough crying. yesterday was a fun night, i got to play wii (always a blast) and hang out with some very good friends. good times all around. today i think we're practicing to get ready to play jammin' java tomorrow. apparently it's sold out, which is really awesome. i can't wait. i know what i'm doing if we're not practicing, though. watchin' the oc. hell. yeah.

i got nothin for this space.

today was band practice, and we just about finished up two brand new songs. one of them is a slow song, the first slow song we've attempted to write, actually. it kind of sounds like "my girl" in the verse. we'll see if these songs end up making the cut or not, but i think they're pretty good. i've also had to catch up on a few episodes of house (aka the best tv show out there). i found the one from two weeks ago, but i still haven't seen the episode from a few days ago and its KILLING me. if anyone is in the know and has a site that has it, link me. please.

HOME!

well, after a fun little adventure to maine (with a few stops along the way) i'm finally home, typing this in the couch in my bedroom. i donated my day to the roads today, mainly 1-95 south. eleven solid hours. tried to sleep, but couldn't. i loaded up the ol' i-pod with tons of new music that i was looking forward to listening to (mute math, radiohead, paul mccartney, the kooks, the decemberists), but i only really listened to one cd the entire time. its from a little band called the weepies, and they are my new musical crush. my good friends at wikipedia tell me they're from massachusetts, but i swear they both have major irish accents. ah well, maybe i'm just crazy. anyway, go get they're cd "say i am you." good times all around. back to regular life now. we'll see if i remember how this goes.



p.s. what does the term happy as a clam mean? like.....is that weird to anyone else?

movie day!

sooo, today was pretty much filled up by watching movies all day in the same hotel room in maine we've been in. the patriot, we were soliders, scary movie 2, 3, and 4 were all on throughout the course of the day. we debated whether anna faris was good looking or not ad nauseum. i say she is, but hey, that's my opinion. anyway, i think we're finally going home tomorrow. it should be a good time, but the ten hour drive will be pretty brutal. yep, talk to you all then.

going stir crazy...

trapped in a hotel room...maybe some of this will go down. im also talking to a pair of nuts. actually more a left one than anything. wild.

hey whoa ohhh hey hoooo....

well, today was quite a day, and its not even over yet. woke up, drove to (forgotten town name), maine, played a super sweet sweet 16, and now im sitting in great little hotel room with kurt, joe and tony watching some show about motorcycles. i do not, if you can believe it, own a motorcycle. anyway, we might go to hooters tonight to watch the villanova b-ball game, and we also might hit the ole' pool/hot tub. who knows? anyway thats pretty much all i got, hopefully we make it home tomorrow, we've got a ten hour ride and a busted trailor. anyway, watch this video, it made me laugh.

aaaaanddd, we're bloggin!

well, i've always wanted to start a blog, but never thought i was important enough to. no, i am not anymore important now then i was then, but i thought what the hell, why not just go for it. i'm going to try and update this at least once a day, because i hate it when i read other people's blogs and they never update them. i play drums for a band called the goodnight anthem. you should know this before continuing.

so, right now i'm in a hotel in maine with joe, tony, eli and kurt as we prepare to play a private sweet sixteen party. it should be a really good time, i'm genuinely excited.

in my life (the name of this blog) is a refernce to one of my favorite beatles songs of all time, titled (wait for it)..."In My Life." this blog will be littered with beatles references, so if you're not a fan, i highly recommend you educate yo' self. check it.



so now that we've got all of that housekeeping and first blog jitters out of the way, let's have a good, wholesome, fun-filled time.