where are my shoes friends?

Liz, Ben, and I swam in a shady lagoon surrounded by trees with faces, who's roots were the ground and who's roots were heads and mouths and arms
the roots were in the water and as I floated on my back every time I blinked I was reset
I kicked and pulled slowly on my back and every time I blinked the tree branches above me darted back a few feet and I wasn't moving across the water
the water was cold and the heat in the air was killing us
we sat on white rocks that looked and moved and were elephants in Dumbo
the sky was almost solid light from stars
coyotes or dogs sang to the moon
a raccoon greeted Liz
without a computer, Liz and I had chat roulette and said hello to some others who we knew knew us and who knew we were waving
I spilled beer from my mouth and drank with the ground. Liz spilled beer from her mouth onto the star patched on her shirt and we all drank and sang
We were overheating in the dark and started the car which was a spaceship when we stared at the dashboard and sat with Tom Waits as he told us jokes
then the car was a car and we laid in the tent but didn't sleep
we called Nathan and he found a waffle house online and we packed up camp at two am and put out the fire and drove to waffle house and met Nathan and he's going to live with me and Liz in our house that has a washing machine now and a clothesline but no trees or dirt hills or white rocks or raccoons

We stayed in New Orleans a couple days. The kind folks from Giant Cloud put us up and hooked up a show at the Circle Bar. Hunter S Thompson used to drink there.
Tonight we're in Lafayette.

But a few days ago we were in North Carolina. Thanks all yall for coming out to the shows in Wilmington, Chapel Hill, Winston Salem, and Asheville. And thanks to all yall at the Grey Eagle, Werehouse, Soapbox, and Local 506--bands and venues.


Got written up about in the Mountain Xpress :
its like we're playing a ouija board

And back in Austin tomorrow, where we have a show on Saturday at the Hole in the Wall.
myspace.com/thebakersnc

I'm Ben, he's Ben, we're all Ben.

We camped in Oak Mountain State Park near Birmingham Alabama after our show was canceled.
I woke up to a rustling sound just outside the tent and quietly peered out the screen window. A squirrel was sitting by our campfire, munching away at Darryl's bag of barbecue potato chips.

Ben met his doppelganger at the Longbranch Saloon in Knoxville, TN.


The lovely and hospitable folks from Giant Cloud found us a show here in New Orleans at the Circle Bar tonight!

We will be home in two days.

Liz

Rivet Braille

Detroit wheel-snatch:

1. Loosen all the lugnuts. Let them drop to the sidewalk.
2. Walk away. If you have to run, do not go on to step #3.
3. Two of your friends pull up in their truck. They put a jack under the lug-lacking frame.
4. Throw the wheels in the car.
5. Drive away.
6. Call your friend with the crack cocaine

Jack White once had his nuts removed outside the bar we played, the Lager House. He went out to his car sometime between steps 2 and 3, missed the twenty shimmering signs telling him not to drive, and sank right to the ground.

The GM building is creepy. The Mordor of urban America. We all saw Canada for the first time, about a mile across a straight. The band after us at the Lager House had a banjo, fiddle, double bass, guitar, and saw. They played an acoustic show standing in a semi-circle on the floor. It rocked harder than anything I've seen on this tour. The crowd completed their circle, and everyone in the band sang. I should write their band name here...don't think I ever knew it.

Detroit gave way to Cleveland, which gave way to Mr. Gnome's country home. Sam and Nicole let us make some half-drunken noise in their practice space, then shared Youtube videos with us.



The Cleveland show was a blast. Pat's in the Flats was, as it turns out, in the Flats. It seemed to be the only populated building in sight...but a surprising number of people knew where it was. It has a long (one of the longest) histories with punk rock in Cleveland.

In Pittsburgh I got to see my best friend from college. We sat by the river for a few hours, just like we used to in Chicago. The Lava Lounge show was awesome, and we stayed with Nicole and Morgan who live above their pet grooming shop.

Jersey was the 12th show of our 13-night run. The next night, we lugged all our gear down a narrow staircase in the lower east side of Manhattan. We were beat before the show even started. Somehow we still played a good show (we're told). Owen gave us some vital energy.

We relaxed in New York City for two more days, thanks to Andrew and his roomates who let us stay for three nights. Now we descend the East Coast. Our show in Red Bank (NJ) last night was, as crowd response goes, our most successful yet. Spirits are high, and Ben is putting us up yet again in his beach-side apartment. See you in Philly

-Ben

Find the Family

Where's the Bakers?

Darryl sighs in satisfaction after a meal in Chinatown

CPD recruits lions.

in a Milwaukee park by the woods by the lake

by the lake

In Madison
we met a young man named Cory,
who--with us--experienced listening to Radiohead,
and eating a tamale for the first time.
he chose a pokemon card from Darryl


at the venue, the trailer got stuck in a narrow alley,
but Ben worked it out with his trailer wizardry.
And all the people danced...
It was a cold night

Liz asked me before the show if I could grab the box of shirts.
they wouldn't be there
Ben and I checked
they weren't
Saint Louis mailed them to Cleveland today - - where we will meet the shirts on Wednesday

Madison and Chicago were awesome. Way beyond our expectations. A girl we met in Chicago, Ki, recorded our show at the Dark Room. The recordings actually didn't bum us out...so we're posting a few of them soon.

The Melody Inn is tonight, a venue we've played and look forward to re-playing.

poison ivy arms

while shuffling 40 ft. off the ground,
we contracted the oils
that birthed the itching boils
that plague us


yall,
We just completed the first week of our Summer tour
7 shows already past

We started it off with Dallas and Denton and had a ball and a biscuit hanging out with the Sneed clan

Darryl spent his first day ever out of the great state of Texas in Little Rock, Arkansas, where we played White Water Tavern - - food, drinks, and poison ivy. Ben, Stuart, and Darryl climbed an abandoned bridge right outside the venue and rubbed up against some nasty nasty and spread it to the rest of the band.

then to Kansas City where we stayed with Jared, Heather, and Sprocket. thanks for the hospitality yall.

then St. Louis

then Milwaukee. packed show at the Y Not III. Nathan wants to move here.

Madison tonight.

Thanks everyone who's put us up so far - - friends and new friends