It's my Birthday!

The guys all pitched in to buy me a new skateboard for my birthday in Vermont! Spaceman took a pano of me not landing skateboard tricks. Best birthday present ever. Anyone want to skate with me? Vermont was fun except for the fact that we all go sick that night from the crazy weather change. I played with a fever. Aswan said I looked like I was about to die on stage. My face was swollen, sweaty, and red and my eyes were all rolled back in my head as I incoherently stumbled across the stage for 45 minutes. Sorry guys.

Other things in VT:

-Cold weather.
-Sickness.
-Al's French Fries. (Amazing diner)
-A really cute girl who worked at the venue.
-Skateboarding!
-Paper Tongues sick in bed.
-Hopes of warmer weather.
-Clayton teaching us the importance of maintaining our health.
-Clayton teaching us the conspiracy of the Swine Flu being a farce.
-Clayton, the conspiracist.

Let's Hear it for New York!

This is a pano Spaceman took of the water in New York. We played the Highline Ballroom that night in Manhattan. This was one of my favorite shows up to date. The crowd was amazing. Everybody was dancing and getting so into the music. That really helps us put on a good show by the way. Not to say you have to dance, but it is appreciated. New York has always been one of my favorite places in the world. There is so much to do all the time and you really can do anything you want and nobody will bat a lash at you because there is so much weird stuff happening all around. Seriously try it. Do something crazy. Act like a crazy person, streak through the street, do cartwheels all the way around central park and tell me if anyone even so much as looks at you funny. If anybody actually reads this thing, we're going to be in New York again in a couple weeks at the Blender Theatre and Gramercy. Please come!

Other Things in N.Y.:

-Joe the art of coffee. (Best coffee shop ever)
-Paper Tongues first show with Everclear.
-Paper Tongues article in the New York Post.
-Our Record Label.
-Jay Z.
-Danny's mom.
-Danny's girlfriend.
-Blink 182 and Fallout Boy at Madison Square Garden! (great show)
-Paper Tongues on busses instead of cabs. (We're broke)

Tucson is for Rattle Snakes

This is the KFMA Fall Ball in Tucson, AZ. This was the best crowd we've ever had. Way to go Tucson! I'm from Phoenix so it felt great being in the desert again. Since I was feeling all happy and nostalgic being back in my home state, I had my cousin give me a tattoo of a rattle snake on my leg in our hotel room. It's sick! Thanks Caleb. If anybody lives in AZ and wants a tattoo, Caleb Hail does a great job. Find him on facebook or something. Anyway, the festival was great. We got to play with some amazing bands. Flyleaf, who we are going back out on tour with in a week, Rise Against, The Used (high school hero's for us), and The Misfits! I didn't even know they were still around. Weird. Behind all that makeup and metal spikes, there are some really stand up gentlemen. My hat is off to them.

Other things in Tucson:

-The Desert!
-A lot of people who love music.
-Snakes.
-Drastic weather changes.
-Fuzeball! (Spaceman reigns supreme)
-A crazy van driver giving too much information about his ex-wife on the ride to the hotel.
-According to the said driver, Dirt biking, and Fighting. That's all. Literally.

I Can't Wait to get a Ride to California

So it's been a little bit since I last posted on here but I promise I'm going to try to do better. A few weeks ago we were in L.A. shooting the music video for "Ride to California". Here is a pano of the filming site. It was insane. This was our first music video experience so hopefully we didn't screw up.

Other things in L.A.

-Kids picking up tons of little bits of confetti out of bushes. The remnants of Miley Cyrus's Party in the USA video.
-Wayne Isham. The best director in the world. Also, he sounds like Phillip Seymore Hoffman.
-Lot's of really expensive clothes.
-Lot's of really expensive equipment.
-Aswan and I powersliding in a busted old van next to a daunting canal.
-Miniature bikes being ridden by fullsize men.
-Paper Tongues pretending to really play a song 132 times in a row.
-Andrew McPherson. Guy can shoot some photos.
-Miles Siggins. Guy can shop.
-Not Neil Hamburger. Spaceman is a liar!

Lawn Wranglers!

This is just outside of Boone, NC. We didn't play a show there, instead we did landscaping. Cody and I went up for about a week on our off time to make some money to pay bills and such. It was actually really refreshing being in the mountains for a week and doing things like mowing grass and weed eating, like normal people making a living. Sometimes I wish I had a more simple life like that, but music is pretty good too. In this photo we have me looking like the king of all landscapers on the top of a mountain holding my weed eater, and of course wearing my ear and eye protection. And we have Cody getting down and dirty with a leaf blower, cleaning up my dirty work. How did we do it if it was just the two of us? Well, a random bum came trudging up the hill through the woods and just asked us if we needed somebody to take a panoramic picture of us in our work garb. Obviously we said yes immediately and then he disappeared into thin air with a cloud of smoke and we never saw him again. I guess this picture was just meant to be taken. Enjoy.

Other things in Boone:

- Espresso News! This is the best coffee shop you'll ever go to.
- Mountains. The kind that roll, not the kind that peak.
- Lot's of laws against riding bikes with no helmets and skateboarding anywhere.
- Appalachian State University. I went to school there before I quit to join PT.
- Fake hippies.
- Great river spots.
- Two Paper Tongues briefly.
- Two brawny men covered in sweat on the top of a mountain.

Terrible Truck Stop Terror / Virginia Got Warped / Praise the Name of Nashville

Actually, I wasn't around for the next six pano's. Nardo took them in my stead. They are a compilation of spots from our trip back to the East coast via R.V. from California. Nardo is sitting next to me while I write this, so he is going to tell me a bit about every photo. This first one is Danny and Cody at a truck stop immediately following a viewing of the entire first season of the Dave Chappelle show. The comedic racist influence of the show tends to spark something dangerous within this (urban meets country boy for the first time) friendship that is Danny and Cody. A few out of hand jokes later and this pano is done. Enjoy.




Above is a series of pano's from the Virginia Beach, VA Warped Tour. This was our first warped tour show. It was very hot. We got to park with the big band tour buses for about ten minutes before they told us we were supposed to park in the "local acts" lot down the way. We played the smallest stage at the place, so if you actually heard us there, you must have gotten lost in the noise going from the Saosin show to the Underoath show. We're hardcore, right?



Nashville! Matt and Nardo went to this abandoned train station that was transformed into a cigar bar called the Flying Saucer. According to Nardo, it was dope. Apparently, the guys got to stay in a four star hotel. The reason it was a four star for us was definitely the parking situation. A bad parking set up with and R.V. and trailer, no matter how nice the hotel, will immediately drop it from 4 to 1 stars. I was having a beach vacation with the fam during this time, so I wasn't around to experience it. Oh well. I'll take the beach any day.


Other things on the road:

-Crazy Navajo singing bums + Matt's obsession with native American jewelry.
-The power of UNO reveled.
-The new Mat Kearney album being overplayed.
-The new Kid Rock album being loathed by everybody, save for Matt.
-Scenery!
-Paper Tongues Everywhere!
-Buzz Lightyear kite flying.

Round up the wives, we're going to UTAH!

We didn't really do anything in Utah except drive through it. We stopped briefly to take this pano and joke about Polygamy, but that's really about it. Maybe we stopped for gas too, I don't remember.

Other things in Utah:

-Mormans.
-Paper Tongues.

Toronto Has a Trash Problem

This is Nardo, our sound engineer ordering some food at an italian restaraunt across the street from the Mod Club where we played that night. What a great Venue. And the crowd was amazing. Everybody was getting into the show which was nice. And of course JET put on a great show. I asked some guy in front of the venue where a good place to get a bite to eat was and he responded with, "Well, I don't really know this area very well, but I'm sure you can find something if you just walk either way on this road." That was extremely helpful. I ended up having some kind of Turkish dish I can't pronounce which was unreal. Toronto was an awesome city with a great scene. People were smoking weed all over the place in public which was weird to see. But there was one thing I wasn't crazy about. Apparently the public trash service is undergoing a strike at the moment, refusing to pick up any trash until they allow them to save up their sick and vacation days to cash in at the end of their carreer and retire early. What a crazy strike! And there is literally trash everywhere right now. Mountains of black trash bags! Oh, and we completely jacked our R.V. on a parking meter. Woops.

Other things in Toronto:

-Great skyline.
-A bouncer who was formerly a part of Sudam's crew but got captured by our soldiers.
-Some creepo trying to get Nick from JET to let him in the back door.
-A nice little dog park.
-JET and Papertongues
-Looney's and Twoney's.
-Extremely laid back people. (Geez, tighten up a little folks.)
-Funny Accents.
-One of the tail lights from our R.V. somewhere.

Waiting on the Jumbalaya, New Orleans

In this picture is Jordan, Myself, and our good friend Joey Langlinais waiting for our Jumbalaya. I don't remember the restaraunts name, but it was unbelievable. This was our first time in New Orleans. The Food was great, the weather was sticky, and the opportunity for absolute self destruction was rampant! I gambled my first five dollars ever and lost it. Tough luck. We went to Jazz Fest while we were there and saw Kings of Leon, which inspired the crap out of Jordan, Joey, and myself, but Aswan didn't seem too impressed with the perfomance, or lack there of as he said. We played the House of Blues while there. The crowd was super feisty that night. Some guys were throwing punches during our set. I never thought we played fight provoking music, but I guess everyone has their triggers. One of those guys came up to me after the show with a face dripping in blood and mangled with bruises. He tried to get me to pick up his tab. I left immediately after telling him no. He was much bigger and more innebriated than me. New Orleans is crazy! I loved it though.

Other things in New Orleans:

-Strip club upon strip club upon strip club upon strip club.
-The best local music I've ever heard in my life.
-Too many bars to count.
-No law against open alcohol containers in public.
-Crazy sketchy tatto joints that you can only get to following a huge goofy dude by the name of John.
-My good friends Joey and Beka Langlinais.
-Harrah's casino.
-Humidity.
-Really really really weird smells.
-Trouble.
-Paper Tongues sometimes.

Ft. Walton Beach is the jam!

This was from a while back when we were out on tour with Flyleaf. I just found it in the archives. We played at a place called The Swamp. Not too appealing right? That's what I thought until we saw the place. This was most everybody's favorite show of the entire tour. It's not every day you get to play a show right on the beach with the breeze blowing through the open walled venue. Also, my team in volleyball won the beach game we played that day!

Other things in Ft. Walton:

-Water.
-Sand.
-Drunken sunburned tourists.
-A great band called Mother's Anthem.
-Flyleaf and Paper Tongues.
-A huge line of people that don't like talking into video camera's.
-Free tattoo's that we regretably didn't take advantage of.

Colorado Suburban Bliss

After driving forever across middle America where hills don't exist and farms are a-plenty, we showed up in Denver, Colorado to crash at Cody's Aunt's house for the night. I don't think there could have been a bigger difference from our last stop in Concil Bluffs to Denver. It's at the base of the Rockies and the weather is crisp and clear. The people never stop smiling and the animals are friendlier. The houses are massive and extremely homey and the food is to die for. At least at Cody's fam's house it was. They made us seared tuna steaks with an unbelievable salad. For desert there were homemade lemon bars and mollases cookies. All this in contrast to a dirty casino, fake palm trees and a hooters. What a great change of scenery. And to top it all off, there is a nice little rainbow right in the middle of our pano! Colorado, you're too much.

Other things in Colorado:

-Hiking/biking trails.
-Snow in the summer! (if you go up high enough)
-Pine trees.
-Chaco's, Crocs, tie-die shirts, and khaki shorts.
-Health food.
-King size beds.
-In-ground trampolines.
-Paper Tongues, momentarily.

What's in Iowa?

Fake palm tree's outside of a Hooters restaraunt are in Iowa. There are also some casino's, one of which we were booked to play at but due to two of our members being underage, we weren't allowed in. So, I guess there are very strict age restriction laws in Iowa as well. Regardless of not getting to play the show, Joey, Nardo, and myself went to the casino to watch JET play after they had a few drinks at the before mentioned Hooters. They put on a fantastic show during which Nick the lead singer went into the crowd shaking his tamborine, climbed a dividing wall in the restaurant, sat down and ate a few bites of food off somebody's plate. After that he ran back to the stage to pick up his guitar, play a few licks while chewing the food in his mouth and finally belt out the last scream of the song.

Other things in Iowa:

-Farms. Lots of farms.
-A very comfortable Comfort Inn.
-A well constructed gazebo worth having a nice sit in.
-Ruby Tuesday's. (My God! what a salad bar!)
-Some guy in a casino giving cheers and fist pounds to the people he doesn't know around him.
-Wind.
-Paper Tongues, briefly.

How 'bout these apples?

Nardo, our sound engineer has an i-phone. On his iphone he has an i-app called Pano where you can take i-panoramic i-photos. We're going to take one every where we go unless we forget or run out of time. We'll post them here for you to look at them with your i-'s. We appologize in advance for all the slacking off we're sure to be guilty of with this blog.

-Devin and Nardo