pullout video

I found this video on the you tube. It's a weird edited video from the show the other night that some grown men made. It has good footage of us playing a song though. The song is called "The Art of Blasphemy" and it will be on the upcoming album.

Enjoy.

Drop the 'tude dude

For the last few years I haven't really had any compelling reasons to go to Warped Tour. Each year I see the line up of bands and recognize only a hand full of names out of 1000, and out of that hand full there are usually one or two worth seeing. However, this year Against Me! was playing and my friend Kristy was working on the warped tour and put me on the guest list, so i thought "What the Hell?"

I don't know where Kevin Lyman gets his people to work the booths, but about 99.9% of them had serious cases of "Rock Star Syndrome". One band (who I won't mention) that I have played with a few times (and headlined over I might add) barely let me put up a Casualties poster for a show i am promoting. Apparently being on Hellcat gives you an asshole pass as a bonus when you sign.

I did spend a majority of the day hanging up said posters for an upcoming show in San Francisco. I went to the Side One Dummy tent, which is the label that The Casualties are on and here is a transcript of how that conversation went down.

ME: "Hey Guys, do you mind if I hang up a Casualties poster for their upcoming show at Thee Parkside?"

DUMB GUY: "NO!"

ME: " No?, are you serious? You do realize that this band is on your label don't you??"

DUMB GUY: "They are? Hey, (calling the attention of a smarter guy) can we hang up a Casualties poster?"

SMART GUY: "Are you fucking kidding? Of coarse he can put up a poster, That band is on our label and we support the bands on our label"

ME: "Thanks smart guy, you should be fired dumb guy"

SMART GUY: Insert SMART GUY yelling and swearing at DUMB GUY

Don't get me wrong, the whole day wasn't filled with assholes treating me like a pimple faced preteen who's soul purpose is to meet the broad from Paramore. I had a good time kicking with my friend Kristy who I never get to see because she lives in Nashville or Memphis or somewhere that isn't California. It was like 90 degrees out side which is ridiculous for SF but nice for a change. I also got to watch Against ME and the Street Dogs play. I didn't really watch anyone else. I watched Pennywise play a few songs, mostly for nostalgic reasons but that got old pretty quick.

It's weird, after all that shitty people I met, I would still love to play the Warped Tour. It seems like one giant drunken, summer long BBQ. Maybe next year. haha

Pullout is playing with The Casualties tonight @ Thee Parkside. Come one, come all.

Keep it real,
Chris

Way Over Yander In The Minor Key

I finally got to see Billy Bragg perform the other night. It was nothing short of amazing and what a better place to see him than at The Fillmore. His performance was one of the most inspiring things I have ever seen. Just him and a guitar. The picture up top was take in Minneapolis, but you get the point. He was wearing the same shirt.

3 long days later..

So it was a long 3 days at Pus Cavern but the Pullout album is finished! It doesn't have a name yet but we are are all very happy with the finished project. Working with Joe at Pus Cavern has always been an awesome experience and this time was no different. This time was actually much easier than when I was in there to record Fire the Faith with Monster Squad. Probably because I didn't have guitar parts that I need to nail over and over again. I did find that singing in the studio is a very physically tiring experience. A couple times my tendons in the back of my neck locked up and I fell to the ground from excruciating pain. At first, I thought I was having a brain anurism but I talked with Jason Dcoi and Richey Russel and they both have had that happen to them before. It was a shitty paralyzing feeling, but the vocals needed to get finished in a short time, so I manned up and just delt with the head ache. I was able to finish all the vocals and lyrics in time and I think they came out well.

We are thinking of calling the album Eagles & Vultures, it is a new song on the album. Most of the lyrics on the album are about the goods and evils in life (IE. Government, friendships gone wrong, addictions, The state of the Country.) It seems like a fitting title for the album, but we will see what happens.

We slept at the studio for a couple nights and managed to keep our selves entertained, mostly with alcohol. The first night we just relaxed and talked about meaningless shit. We walked like 2 miles to a McDonalds late at night. Justin Dcoi and I walked through the drive through because we didn't have a car. For some reason most place won't let you walk through the drive through but this guy was cool and let us order some poison that is McDonalds.

The next night we went to a Fashion Show in Downtown Sacramento. Now, this was originally supposed to be like 10 dudes rolling to this thing but at the last minute everyone bailed except 3 of us. We had free tickets and DJ Jazzy Jeff was supposed to DJ. For all of you who lived under a rock during the early 90's, DJ Jazzy Jeff was Will Smith's DJ before he blew up on Fresh Prince, he was also "Jazz" on Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Turns out, he canceled last minute so I sat at a table for about 30 minutes while the models changed clothes in front of me. Best seat in the house.

Work sucks, wish I was on tour.

-Chris

hectic

I am trying to get all the lyrics finished for the Pullout full length that will be recorded later this week. The dudes wrote some awesome new songs that I am very stoked on. The stressful part is trying to make some non cheesy lyrics to go with it them on a short notice. It should be interesting to see what my brain comes up with. We don't have a name for the album yet, but Matt Kadi is doing the art work. He showed me an idea he had for it on his computer and it looked awesome. All that is certain is that we will be releasing it on Strength Through Pain Records or Productions which is Jay's label that he is trying to get off the ground. I think it might be released on vinyl only with an mp3 card inside? Not 100% sure on that yet but we will know soon.

All 5 Monster Squaders went to the Britton Reed benefit show in Orangvale on Friday. It was the first time we had all been together since we got home from Europe. Turns out there was some unfortunate drama that happened, won't get into it but one of the bands dropped off at the last minute. So Mike from Pressure Point asked us to play a few songs. We ended up playing like 6 songs and kids went wild. It felt great to play with those guys again. Seeing how we haven't been in the same room together since Berlin in February, we were a tad rusty. The lights got turned off after a couple of songs and I couldn't see what I was playing at all...plus we had all been drinking for a while. Made things interesting but it was an absolute blast.

check back for studio updates.