Weekend Roundup - Northwestern, Quenchers, and the University of Southern Illinois

Ok, we did a whole bunch of shit over the weekend and there are plenty of people who must be mentioned. So here we go:

FRIDAY:

We spent an ungodly amount of time on the main drag driving across the Chicago Suburbs to our radio show at Northwestern, but it was worth it as our in-studio performance was solid. The room itself was a bit like an icebox, literally, it was freezing.



The session turned out great though and we were given red t-shirts with “Chicago’s Sound Experiment.” Thanks to Lori and everyone at WNUR!



Despite Quenchers’ diminutive stage, our Friday night show went over well. The room was near packed and the crowd was quite enthusiastic. We shared the stage with Raise High the Roof Beam, who will join us at our homecoming show at Cake Shop on Saturday, Oct. 3. Energetic does no begin to describe these guys; wildly kinetic is slightly more appropriate. They were almost exhausting to watch. The set climaxed with a barrage of paper airplanes launched from the stage – this prompted a dogfight of catastrophic proportions. Busted and trampled paper planes littered the linoleum after the audience departed.

RHTRB also invited us to an after-party around the corner. Will and Jeremiah played the dad-role and went home but Yoi and Gavin gladly accepted. Yoi had already taken advantage of one new fan’s homegrown mind expanders and was very chilaxed. He was a riot at the party, dropping full beers (those PBR cans are rather slippery). Gavin started up a blues jam and Yoi jumped on one of two drum sets – at 2 a.m. The neighbors seemed not to mind. It was such a good time that when Will called Yoi in the morning he had no clue where he was or how he got from the party to where he ended up sleeping.

SATURDAY:

On Saturday Jeremiah fly back to New York for a wedding, so the three of us who play stringed instruments decided to walk around Chicago after devouring an excellent breakfast at a family friend’s restaurant, Ina's. We were going to go to either the aquarium or the natural history museum, but admission was over $20 – that’s not feasible for a group of starving musicians. I mean, how are we supposed to buy beer if we wasted all our cash on looking at fish? Instead we wandered through Millennial Park, taking tons of touristy photos which you can look at here.

We stuffed ourselves on Geno’s East deep dish pizza (OK, maybe we’re not starving musicians) before bartering a 30-pack of Miller High Life for the use of Raise High the Roof Beam’s couches. The night turned into another great party as Yoi and Gavin set up dating profiles on OKCupid and took profile shots with of the Roof Beam member Thomas’ large collection of hats which you can check out here.

Later Will and Yoi performed a few acoustic tunes in preparation for our radio show in Carbondale, Illinois. We can’t thank the Roof Beam kids enough for their hospitality and general awesomeness.

SUNDAY:

In the morning, we hit the very straight road south for five and a half hours to Southern Illinois University, home of the Salukis (an Egyptian dog – there are many ancient Egypt references around Carbondale related to the town’s ability to prosper in droughts) and WIDB, where “And We Wake Up Slowly” is no. 4. During an enjoyable interview with music director Ben, Yoi and Will pulled out a Southern gothic version of “Antarctica” and Will delivered a remarkably precious solo version of “This Summer.”

Afterwards, for a change of pace, Will, Yoi and Gavin hit up a local bowling joint advertising $1.50 games. Will was the speed champion, breaking 20 mph several times, while Gavin consistently broke 100 (using light balls and averaging 12 mph). Yoi rolled 242 – his cumulative score over four games. After grabbing a nightcap at local dive PK’s, Dorian James invited us to stay at his bungalow with his sweetheart black lab, Achilles. Not only did Dorian offer us his bed, he made us an incredible breakfast of bacon, eggs and taters – forget Southern hospitality, the people of Illinois are saints.

MONDAY

Driving back up to Chicago on scenic (“Look – corn!) Rte. 57 for a special show at Heave Media before hitting the Elbow Room, the wind attempted to blow us into Ohio.





Yoi and Gavin picked up hot new kicks at a Nike outlet store.





And the group bought an early 80s Eddie Murphy comedy album on cassette. There was much rejoicing.

Hanging in the Gateway

“I need to a day off to recover from our day off,” Will said and all were in agreement. Feeling a little weak from the previous night’s exploits, we set off in search of lighter fare than the heavy meals of the past days.

We drove through Forest Park, stopping to take a picture of the van outside the art museum.



The park is gorgeous and includes a free zoo, which seemed to be closed because of the rain – we were still able to seem kangaroos and flamingos bouncing about. It was hard not to be impressed by the regal architecture on Washington University’s campus. Driving through University City and its various curiosity shops, we all commented how charming we found this section of St. Louis.

After consuming some delicious Middle Eastern cuisine, we stopped at Meshuggah coffee house for a some wicked strong cups of joe and free wireless. Then it was onto the Anheuser-Busch brewery, an experience better served by pictures. However, we must note that we had the pleasure of tasting Bud Light Golden Wheat, Bud’s version of a summery wheat beer like Blue Moon, and were quite surprised how flavorful it was. It will be launched in October, but you heard about it first from The Jaguar Club.

On the town in St. Louis

First off, huge apologies for the lack of posts. We decided to take the weekend off, but don’t fret, we’re back and better than ever.

As soon as we arrived at the Red Roof Inn in St. Louis, we hurriedly brushed teeth, reapplied deodorant, washed faces and changed into party shirts – we were going out on the town. It was the first time in the Gateway to the West for three out of the four of us and our first night off after playing six shows in five days.

We departed our sweet hotel room – certainly the nicest we’d had all trip – and walked journeyed across a sketchy bridge over a massive muddy ditch through the section of town known as “The Hill” and into Dogtown. Jeremiah gave us a little history lecture – apparently Dogtown was residence to poor English, Irish and Welsh immigrants that had many dogs. The road cutting through Dogtown was used by the upper classes to get to their large houses in their hoity-toity carriages and the dogs would run wild, howl and bite the horses’ ankles.

We saw one black dog sleeping. Will forgot that maxim about letting sleeping dogs lie and it gave us a nasty glare.

Jeremiah had scoped out the hot prospect of Seamus McDaniels, which had a huge (and empty) back porch.



He also said we had to try Budweiser on tap because it’s far better in St. Louis – he told no lies. The king of beers lacks that brutal aftertaste one finds in bottles out East and instead was sweet and extremely drinkable. So drinkable we downed five (cheap) pitchers.



Close to 1 a.m., we were the sole patrons and joined the bartendress and owner for a last round. We chatted real estate (it’s also cheap out here) and the flooding in Georgia before stumbling out – quite lovely people at Seamus McDaniels. It is Jaguar Club approved.



Drunken munchies struck as we tried to find our way back to the hotel. Many band meetings were held in huddle form, some just to admire Gavin’s loud and amusing drunken hiccoughs.

We decided on Denny’s, which was also closing but offered to make us something to go – just about every fried option on the appetizer menu. More band meetings were held outside, though the outcomes were ultimately forgotten. Gavin decided to roll barrel-style down a sharp embankment nearly into the street. Attempts to buy beer were thwarted by Missouri law.

Back at the Red Roof, we dug greedily into our feast. During this time a ketchup battle erupted – the catalyst is a bit hazy, but probably could be summed up by intense wastedness. Countless packets of ketchup were fired across the hotel room with only a few exploding. The room was filled with moans and the sound of plastic whipping bare flesh. It was an every-man-for-himself brouhaha that devolved into wrestling, whipping with shirts and rug burns before we all passed out from the perfect combination of exhaustion and drunkenness.

As we groggily checked out of the Red Roof the next morning, Yoi realized he had forgotten his favorite shirt. He sheepishly searched the room as the housekeeping woman cleaned up bits of tortilla chips, ketchup wrappers and other pieces of carnage. War is hell.

LIVE in-studio @ WNUR 89.3 Chicago TODAY at 5:15 CT.

We're doing the radio thing again, but this time we're live. Maybe we'll take some calls, that would be fun!

Listen in online at http://wnur.org

Five State, Eleven Hours

We leave Atlanta and head northwest toward Nashville. The plan is to spend our off day there to soak in some of the lovely cultural sites the city has to offer. We zip through northern Georgia and enter Tennessee. We see a glimpse of Chattanooga and we all secretly sing the song in our heads though no one admits to it. Then we are suddenly back in Georgia as the highway curves briefly south, and our hearts sink. No more than 15 minutes later, we enter Tennessee again, and this time, all our phones suddenly turn back an hour. We are in Central Time; a first for the band. We beep the horn and roll on toward Nashville. We stop by the Tennessee welcome center and pick up a bunch of brochures. Dollywood. Studio B. The Country Music Hall of Fame. The Nashville Aquarium. The options are endless.

The countryside becomes a vast expanse of rolling hills, grazing cattle and burning barns. Actually, one burning barn. Pretty sure it was a burning barn. Smelled like it. We drive past the Jack Daniels Distillery and everyone has to strap Yoi down so he won’t jump out the van.

We roll into the parking lot of the Nashville Motel 6 in the afternoon. It is in a sketchy, desolate part of town far removed from the glitz and the legend that led us here. To top it off, we’ve arrived too late to enjoy any of the attractions we wanted to see. We idle in the parking lot for a good five minutes and deliberate about what we should do, The vote is unanimous, nix Nashville! Drive straight to St. Louis and hope to get there in time to enjoy a bit of nightlife on our night off. Done. We book a Red Roof Inn within walking distance from bars in St. Louis. A splurge for sure, but one we feel we deserve.

We drive out of the sketchy lot as a security guard scrutinizes us with a suspicious eye. Driving past downtown, we do a hello, goodbye and jet northwest.

All of the sudden, we are in Kentucky, Completely unexpected. Never been to the Jayhawk state. Is that what it’s called? Birthplace of Lincoln. Of Jackson. The countryside here is all rolling hills and farms. No burning barns here. We roll into the Kentucky welcome center, which we discover has WiFi. We take our computers in there to check email and whatnot. Gavin and Yoi squeeze in some quality ‘bee time. ‘bee, if you don’t know, is Frisbee. It’s the official band sport.

We’ve been driving for some time when we realize we haven’t had anything to eat. We surrender ourselves to the fact that nothing worthwhile will be found in this desolate stretch of land, and settle for the Wendy’s value menu. We all manage to spend less than $5 for dinner. Pretty sure Will spends $2.46. At this point, Yoi takes over the driving. We climb in the car around 8pm and our beloved Garmin GPS, which we’ve named Carmen, indicates that we will arrive in St. Louis at 10:42pm. Will declares a challenge: Arrive in St. Louis by 10:30pm and he will buy a drink for Yoi. Game ON!

Now, there is a trick to doing this. You don’t want to go too fast that you will get pulled over, but you want to go fast enough that a minute is shaved off the ETA every 12 minutes or so. You speed when it seems reasonable. Yoi’s strategy is twofold: follow fast cars and avoid trucks. That means making sure you are clear of any trucks before a long incline. It also means choosing the right car to follow. The pickup truck driven by a 16 year-old going 85 mph is not the right car. The mini-van driven by a middle-aged man going 71 mph in a 65? Golden.

Jeremiah mixes a balls out dance party on his iPod to push Yoi through to the end. It’s a heady mix. New Order. Peter, Bjorn and John. Bloc Party. Franz Ferdinand. Magnetic Fields. Pulp. Band of Horses. The hits just keep on coming. Soon we are in Illinois. The ETA rolls back. 10:40. 39. 38…

Will and Gavin are playing an intense game of chess that last most of the drive. There are occasional bursts of cursing as someone slips up and gives up a rook or knight. Will periodically shouts, “Yoi!”

“Will!?”

“ETA!”

“37!”

This goes on and on every few minutes over the blaring music. Every time the ETA rolls back, Yoi shouts out the new number and there is a burst of applause. Around 9:45, the ETA finally rolls back to 10:30. Big applause. By the time we enter St. Louis city limits, the ETA is a whopping 10:28. Yoi is nervous however. We get stuck at a long red light a block from the Inn and we lurch into parking lot right at 10:30pm. Victory!

Atlanta Day 2: WREK and House Party!

We leave the amp in the good hands of Doctor Will at Orange and we go to our hotel room and watch a marathon of the reality TV show “Colony”. It’s a really stupid show. We also find out that a house party is a go for tonight at the residence of Hannah Barbarian (another local band), and Small Reactions will most definitely also be able to play tonight with us. Great!

We drive to the Georgia Tech campus at 6pm to record a set for WREK. We set up in the middle of their student center and bang out a set while a million mikes record everything. It’s a surreal experience. Jeremiah and Gavin are set up on an elevated circular stage while Will and I are up front a few steps down. I keep on running up and down the stairs to be able to hear Jeremiah, who is set up some 30 feet behind us. We’re invited up to the radio station afterwards to have a quick listen to the recording. It sounds amazing! We thank everyone at the radio station and go grab a quick bit to eat.

It’s about 10:30pm by the time we arrive at the party. There are quite a few people there. Some faces we recognize from the night before, but most are strangers. We grab a few beers and check out Hannah Barbarian, the host band. They’re like a mix between the Allman Brothers and Spoon. Or maybe Phish. Well, it’s all those things. They say “thanks for joining us for our practice tonight” and tear through their set.

Next up are Small Reactions. They are an amazing band. Very poppy, very catchy songs grounded by Sean and Clint’s powerful rhythm section. I especially like Clint’s bass playing which we talk about at length after the show. Our music goes well together.

We set up after them and tear through our set with pumped up energy. We throw in a couple more dance numbers in there and play a party set. I make sure to keep all beverages far away from my gear. The set is a hit! We have a blast with our new friends. Toward 3am, we pack up our stuff and crash in our hotel room.

Wednesday morning, we drop by Orange Headquarters to meet with Doctor Will. He’s done a superb job fixing my baby! She’s actually better now than before her accident. She’s got new clothes and a new set of teeth. Amazing. I can’t thank Doctor Will enough for his splendid work, and for rushing the job when he was so busy. Actually, we can’t thank everyone we met in Atlanta enough for making our stay so splendid. Thanks to Sean and Clint and all the guys in Small Reactions for their help and hospitality. Thanks for Hannah Barbarian, WREK and WonderRoot for letting us play. You guys all rock. Cheers!

Durham, Raleigh, rainstorms, post-apocalyptic Altanta

Sorry, I know we're long overdue on this side of the JC blog-o-sphere. We have been eating well, as you know, but we've also been playing some excellent shows too!

In Durham, NC on Saturday night we played what was probably our best show of the tour thus far at the Pinhook. I don't think any of us had been to Durham before and what limited knowledge we had amounted to several combined viewings of Bull Durham. Well, for those of you, like us, who are unfamiliar with the Bull city, it's pretty nice. Like most southern cities, it's eerily empty at night but that didn't stop a loud and well-numbered crowd from coming out. The sound on stage was terrific and we gave a very loud, very energetic performance. Our hosts, the Huguenots played an excellent set as well, including an amazing cover of Tom Petty's "American Girl".

The next night took us just down the road to Raleigh, NC. We played at Slim's Downtown. It was a nice little place with a really cool layout and a super cool bartender. It was also the first venue that allowed us to smoke inside, which was a huge blast from the past for us Northerners. It definitely makes you smoke a whole lot more, and your clothes smell a whole lot worse. We played with Death to Details and Left Outlet. We'd known Betty from Death to Details since last time we played here so it was sweet to actually get to see her play live. Good, high energy guitar pop with a lefty drummer. Lefty drummers are always a trip to watch. Left Outlet were an entirely different trip altogether. I can't really describe their music. It's definitely something to be experienced in the flesh. You need to be immersed in the elaborate manifests of their aura to fully grasp what they are going for. Think Sid Barrett era Floyd meets Andrew WK meets Southern Gospel. Something like that. And that's not even the half of it. Our own set was right in there as one of the sweatiest. I think we're getting on a roll here, getting things really tight and making sure we can perform to the best of our abilities night after night.

Until the rains came...

Not sure if you've seen the front page of the New York Times, but rolling into Atlanta yesterday was like landing in a war zone. 72 hours of intense rains have caused severe flooding all over Georgia. We got to drive through a small lake on the way into town passed an overturned car.






Even Gladys Knight's Chicken and Waffles had closed due to the rain and given the way Sean from Small Reactions (our wonderful hosts in Atlanta) was talking we weren't really sure the show wouldn't even happen. But arriving at WonderRoot it was clear the that no one there was going to be deterred by any amount of rain. WonderRoot is kind of an arts collective/rehearsal space/venue/pottery studio/anything really. It's very cozy and comfortable, kind of a cross between something vaguely collegiate and something like camping. We played for an audience consisting almost entirely of members of the other bands, but they seemed to really like it despite some technical difficulties from Yoi's side of the stage. If you've ever wondered what a fried Orange amplifier smells like it's kind of a mix between plastic, soy sauce, and vaporized beer - the last ingredient making sense because Yoi spilled an entire cup of keg beer into his amp vent.

The verdict is still out on what exactly is going to happen to his amp, but he definitely did have a bit of good luck in choosing to blow his amp up here. The US headquarters of Orange Amplifiers is here in Atlanta. So I guess Yoi's amp is in the best possible hands.

This is definitely a long post so thanks for sticking with us! But there's no way I can wrap this up without a huge thank you to Sean from Small Reactions. His guitarist's basement was severely flooded so they couldn't even play last night and yet he still was generous enough to sacrifice his own room to give the JC a place to sleep. Not only that, he lent Yoi his bass head for our radio show tonight! And he has a great dane. Basically, the guy is awesome.






Well, we're heading over to Georgia Tech now to do our radio show for WREK 91.1. But before we go, enjoy this photo of Yoi in front of the US headquarters of Orange Amplifiers.

Washington DC - the more things change, the more you stay the same.

As I sit here, feet up on the dash of the Blue Torch, hurdling through Virginia, I find myself amazed that it's not only possible but entirely routine to blog or email or Twitter or facebook etc. from a large van travelling 70+ miles an hour.

There was a time in the not too distant past when, after a show like last night, we would need to search for wifi in order to spill our excitement throughout the interweb. There was something nice about having to work a little to communicate. It made a blog entry seem like more of an event maybe. But there's also something nice about this too, I suppose. In some ways you've never been closer to us then you are now, right here in the passenger seat of the van, heading to Durham NC. Kind of makes you feel cozy huh?

Well times definitely have changed and continue to change faster and faster, but some things do remain the same. Looking out last night at all the familiar DC faces is a wonderful sight and your continued support means so much to each of us.

It's nice to see all the new faces too, of course. We couldn't have asked for a better show to kick off the tour. We secured a dream parking spot. We Were Pirates and Gist rocked. We sweat through our shirts. There were times Will's vocals were nearly drowned out by some serious audience sing-a-longs lead by Greg, who impressed with his memorization of all the new songs already. All in all, it was an awesome night.

A big thank you hug from all of us to all of you. Until next time, DC!

Tour Starts Friday!

Hi Friends,
We've been busy getting physically, emotionally, and musically in shape for the next couple of weeks. We've also been doing lots of work on our new van the Blue Torch... actually the jury is still out on the name. We'll have to see how well we get along together.

Also of possible interest is our new side-blogging career exploring just what it is we do with our free time in all these towns where don't know anyone. We'll keep updating this blog here regarding music and shows but we'll also be doing daily entries on our new one 'Eating, Drinking & Thinking with The Jaguar Club' where we'll keep you updated on the flavors and sensations of low budget touring.

Check the tour page for the latest dates... though once we leave town the most current info will probably be on myspace for technical reasons.

Hope we see you out there!!

Album Streaming At Spinner dot com

Hello. If you haven't taken the plunge yet and gotten your own copy, you can currently stream our new album over at Spinner.com for the rest of the week. Go hear what you're missing.

Europe, we did not forget you!!

Just wanted to say hello and let our friends across the ocean know that our new album 'And We Wake Up Slowly' is available from ITtunes all over Europe.

In addition, the Amazon special edition (13 Tracks) of the new album is available for download in the following countries...

The UK

Germany

France


Enjoy!! Hopefully we'll be able to see some of you in person in the near future!

ALBUM RELEASE DAY!!!

Hey People. Our album 'And We Wake Up Slowly' is finally out today after a few years of effort. We're pretty damn excited. If you'd like to do us the honor of purchasing a copy you have a variety of choices but here are some of our favorites...

DIGITAL - Amazon.com is carrying an exclusive MP3 version of the record with 2 bonus tracks for $8.99 which is probably the best deal going. Plus Amazon's mps are high quality and no one tells you what you can and can't do with them.... i can say all this in good conscience because i truly buy most of my mp3s from Amazon (they can send me free stuff via this website if they want to!)

PHYSICAL - Insound.com is currently carrying the luxuriously packaged compact disc album for 10.99 The package is made from all recylcled cardboard too.


Finally - If you live nearby we're having a little album release night bash at Satellite Lounge in Williamsburg tonight starting at 9pm. We'll be DJing some songs we like by other people and at some point listening to our own new record Prince-style. Also apparently they give a free shot with every beer, whcih seems like a disaster waiting to happen.