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[22 Jul 2009|01:14am] |
my sister spent $400 of her grad/bday money to get a GIANT tattoo directed to me with lyrics from my favorite band in relation to our relationship as brother/sister. i dont think ive ever seen anything so touching, nor do i think another human could ever top this in my life as the most amazing thing anyones ever done for me. everyone should be so lucky. amazing. im speechless.
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[18 Jul 2009|04:38am] |
hahahah iiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeee
wish i saw more of both of these people
quick update:
ive been dieting.
28lbs down. infinity to go.
its all i think about 24/7.
joeys movin back to ohio sunday... booo
im going to miss him around.
ive been going to pittsburgh to write with the paul.
if you can put it together AND not jump to conclusions, good job.
nothings set in stone or even close.
my sisters birthday is sunday as well.
shes goin to college soon. its weirding me out.
she needs to stay little.
im bored and cant sleep
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[13 Feb 2009|02:09am] |
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Good Old War |
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its somewhere around 2am, and everyone in my house has been asleep for an hour. its rare that the only people that were here tonight were the people who live here and also that everyones asleep so early. as a result im up bored trying to kill time until i get tired, and i thought that i could kill some time posting here since its been a while.
for starters, Aubree and I passed up any type of Christmas exchange to get a new place to live. We found one in Altoona, and I have to say, I love it. It's the most expensive, but also the nicest and most spacious that we've lived together in. We have 2 other roommates, Tessa and Joey (we'll get to that), and there's plenty of room for us all to live comfortably. If we felt like remodeling the basement or the attic, we could probably even fit another, but I don't think any of us would want that. We all seem to really be happy here with our little family. We have enough privacy that for once we can finally have all the people we wanted over without having to worry about pissing anyone off through the walls/floors. We're all pretty low-key regardless. Word has it that Andy is going to take some fun family photos of us for the walls. We're thinking some cheesy group ones, and also some individual, senior picture type things.
also in these pictures will be my new dog, Riley.
He likes: Drinking too much water and barfing, sleeping (under blankets only), ripping up my damn carpet when no ones home, his bear
He dislikes: People food, linoleum floors, the fury that comes out of me when I catch him ripping up my damn carpet, stairs, being cold
He's great. I can't yet face the thought of leaving him for a couple months at a time.
recently, like a movie decided to add a new member to the band. with practicing 5 days a week, and usually writing and demoing the other days, we're really coming down hard on ourselves and trying to be as prepared as we can possibly be for when the day comes that this album is finally completed. by the time it starts hitting shelves, we want to be completely prepared to get back on the road and really be on top of our game from a live stand point. we thought if we were going to make a move like this, that it should definitely be before the album came out. we came together and decided on a friend of ours from Ohio named Joey Howard. another "J" name, i know. we get it. we met him a couple years ago on tour when he was with his old band "The Garrison Year". i called him one morning at about 3am and put the offer on the table, and no more than a week later he was living with me. he's extremely talented and is apparently the newest heartthrob in town. I'd do him. he's a great singer and a great songwriter. he'll be playing guitar in Jimmys place and adding an entire arsonal of sweet, sweet harmonies to Jimmys stank-ass vocals.
Since he's been in town, everyone's been wanting to do nothing more than to cook for him or meet him. So I've been riding his coat-tails on his "Eat Across Blair County" tour for two weeks. This picture is from our first dinner night at Andys. Andy's getting to seriously be a really really great cook. I'm looking a lot like my grandfather in his later years in this, and we're both showing our extreme support towards wearing winter hats with t-shirts indoors. I'm quick to point out that my saint of a Grandma made me my hat, and it kept my head warm both indoors and outdoors for the last several months.
I have so much more to bring you up to speed on, Livejournal, but Im bored with this and its getting lengthy. We have a show with Mae and The Composure tomorrow in State College. Should be a good time
I'll try to get myself to remember this exists and to post in it more often, but I won't make anymore empty promises over it. We'll see how it goes
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[20 Nov 2008|02:45am] |
awesome night
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[05 Sep 2008|12:04am] |
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the composure |
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writing.
song writing has been such a big thing in my life. ive been doing it for almost 10 years now and ive always found myself to be okay at it, and i have some people out there that buy my bands music that i guess think the same. but ive been really struggling with it lately. ive been trying to take things a bit more seriously with it. i dont want to be an idiot. 2 billion kids could come sing the lyrics and like the hook, but it wont make me feel any better about my writing. i appreciate it nonetheless, i really do, but i really wish i had someone i really respected as a writer to pick their brains apart, and basically ask have them teach me. i respect a few people i know as writers, but its on a different level. respecting someone enough to consider them legit and really actually loving their work are two different things. i really really wish i could take some theory classes. a band that's friends of ours has been playing a ton of shows with us lately, we're probably annoying the shit out of the region playing every show together while we're around here. its no secret that i love the one singers writing and always have. but they spent the night here one night and the next day we all went to lunch. at lunch i got to ask some questions on theory and shit and it really made me realize just how little i know about music and composition. by the end of our conversation, i was sorry i asked. it not only made me feel small, but made me totally doubt other musicians and friends that i thought were just fine beforehand. im completely grateful that he took the time to explain some things quickly, really, I am. but it totally smashed any confidence i had in myself as a writer, which in anything you do, if you cant even believe in yourself, no one else can.. and you cant even do it if you dont believe in yourself. since then ive been sitting and picking apart different artists writing and comparing it to mine, and the answers im finding aren't the ones i was hoping to find. with each writer dissected, i lose another chunk of confidence in my own writing. and then every idea i have (even though im using the same chord voicings, keys, and scales that exist for anyone elses disposal) just feels so small. no matter what i write or think up, it feels petty in comparison to some of the other things ive been picking apart and analyzing. as with most things.. i started a list for one in particular through comparison.
1. it doesnt flow as well.
2. its lyrically not as moving.
3. the hook grabs you much less.
4. repetitive. not in the good way.
those are just some of the notes i made on a song that any other time, i would have just written off as good and brought to my band to teach them, demo, and then either throw away or name. this makes me feel like a complete ass. it makes me feel like im just crowding up the industry for truly talented people. and then it disgusts me even more to think about anyone ive met who's not as far advanced as even i am that ive seen walk around with no shame at all, because, while they dont even realize it, they think they know all there is to know and criticize everything, when in reality they probably couldn't even complete the simplest task or answer the simplest question on the topic. i just feel ashamed. bored. boring. uncreative. i dont take things like this lightly. on one hand, i love using music as a form of art. just letting whatever spills out, spill out. but on the other, i really want to be able to harness it and control it, to get it down to a system in which i can write a balanced, well formatted song that would stereotypically be considered "perfect" by a vast majority of people. there's so many other shitty things going on in my life right now that i should be venting about (Example: i spent this morning with ben standing beside my smoking car in DC on I95 after sitting in traffic for an eternity...) but this just is actually bothering me more.
i think im going to look into some theory classes right now, really. i never want to be the dumb ass who thinks he knows everything about music but really knows nothing at all, just living cluttering up space and wasting everyone's time, blocking the people who really deserve the credit..
you really cant learn anything if you already know everything.
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[30 Aug 2008|11:02pm] |
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So at 5pm today I had a random thought, called my friend Ben, and we decided that around 3am we're going to drive to South Carolina. We're going to get there tomorrow and surprise all my family at a gathering I thought I wouldn't be able to attend. We'll probably spend a few days on the boat fishing with my Uncle Dan, then shoot down to Jacksonville, FL and visit my cousin Jason. Then we're going to go over to Tennessee (about an hour south of Nashville) and visit my Uncle Bill. Maybe drop into Nashville and visit Sammy boy (and Sammy boy alone) if he's around, and then head home in about a week-ish. I'm pretty happy that I'll get to see and surprise my family, and I'm pretty happy that I'm doing something without making an outline.
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[16 Aug 2008|09:55pm] |
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im back in pa. we all got pa tattoos hahah. i dont really know whats going on here. i have felt out of place, borderline dizzy, since i got here. i think everyone is right when they say im probably just winding down and settling back in. i guess the whole point is that we're supposed to just be relaxing, but im still all wound up with my game face on and i feel more restless than relaxed. a big factor to me being so ultra lame here is my living situation. when i lived in hollidaysburg, i had a place to go. now even if i wanted to invite people somewhere, i wouldnt even know where to do it. i stay at my dads sometimes, my aunts during the days sometimes, aubrees moms a lot of nights, my moms a lot of the evenings... i dont walk around sincerely saying i'm homeless, but the only place i have where i could sit for a full day without making someone feel awkward/feeling awkward is an hour away (my dads) from my whole life (my band, my friends, aubree). its a really weird time for me. whereas i'm sure everyone is getting home and putting their clothes away or tossing them on their floor, my bags are still packed and getting lugged in and out of places every day, and when its time to go, my bags are already packed completely, because ive already been living out of them exactly the same since the last time we were gone. this isnt the worst thing ever or anything, but it definitely feels sort of weird is all. when i'm home i wish i was gone, when i'm gone i wish i was home. we are, however, all getting way better at making the best of exactly where we are. this last tour was a lot of fun for most of us. i hope when we leave here in another 2 weeks that we pick up where we left off. in the meantime, i have no fucking clue of what to do with myself or how to unwind on a more permanent level.
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[30 Jul 2008|07:07am] |
I'm on tour. I'm in San Antonio. Things are going, and as far as the band is going, thing's are going amazing. We're getting ready to leave our managers house in San Antonio to head to our show in OKC tomorrow. It's like a 7 hour drive so I thought I would stay up so I could sleep in the van all day. While sitting around all night, I got to going through old pictures, as we all tend to do when we have some down time. Looking through picture after picture, I found myself being reminded how incredibly blessed and lucky I am. Back in what seems like yesterday, I fell in love with an incredible girl. I've been lucky enough to have her deal with my constant missing status and all my other flaws and hang-ups. Looking through things tonight, I found myself really noticing just how much we've been through together. I thought to myself how much I wish I was with her to look through all these things with, and I thought how I would love just to sit and lay out this life we've built together on the floor and look at every picture, and think about every memory. All I have saved up really are pictures of her, but every picture makes me think of a specific time that I love remembering. I wanted to post a million pictures of her. I wanted to say a million things about her. But being 1600 miles away from her and on the go makes this no easy feat. I can rarely find the time or peace on the road to have enough really good talks, let alone be around giving her the things she deserves, but I thought maybe if I laid the memories here on the i-Floor, and told her how much I loved her, and how much Ive enjoyed this life we've built together, that maybe she could be happy, and that's really all I want is for her to be happy; for her to be able to look back at all of this with me and be happy. These are pictures that I have saved of her/us. They remind me of all of the amazing things we've shared, and they make me excited about all of the amazing thing we're going to share.
( Let's take it back to the start )
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[26 Jun 2008|02:20am] |
Its official.
I'm leaving home on July 12th.
With the exception of a day or two passing back through on tour, I wont be back around here until October.
This will be my first time seeing the entire country, my first time on the west coast, and the longest Ive gone away at one time.
I'll be in PA one week, the Knitting Factory in LA the next, Florida a few weeks after that, and our last date is at the Knitting Factory in NYC.
Then, we're leaving straight from that show and heading back to Texas to live for another month and finish the full length.
I'm really excited and slightly nervous.
I'm going to do my best to keep up on the posting of pictures and videos.
I really hope everyone has a great summer.
Everyone, please, be safe.
To check out the dates go to myspace.com/likeamoviemusic.
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[07 Jun 2008|03:46am] |
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Flobots |
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I have nothing excellent worth posting, not that I really ever do.
I'm living out of my trunk. Nights at Aubree's, the days at my aunts, and every few days I go to the dresser at my Dad's to repack my bag with clean clothes. The band is doing well. We leave on July 13th for a full tour of the United States. We'll be back for the blink of an eye around September 1st, and then back to San Antonio to finish the full length. Overall, I'll probably be gone from July 13th until mid-October somewhere, that is, unless something changes between now and then, as some things tend to do. Was Cat Stevens my first ever favorite band/artist because I loved his melodies and arrangements, or do I love the melodies I love because Cat Stevens was my first ever favorite band/artist? I love my Dad for showing me the folk music he did when I was a kid, because I think the music he picked as my first introduction to music was incredible, but had my first album been by Winger, would I still thank him like I do, only for introducing me to the wonder and gloss of 80s hair metal? I have no idea.
Every time I go to make one of these posts, I swear up and down as I'm logging in that I'll let myself write about whatever I want, except that I won't torture anyone anymore with my (probably incorrect) rants and views on music I love, hate, and create. That, as you know, never happens.
Hopefully in a month I'll have some really great pictures to post from the west coast that will make my journal exciting to look at.
Hopefully California doesn't decide to have that predicted earthquake while I'm there.
Hopefully we don't run into any tornadoes in the mid-west.
Hopefully this years predicted-to-be horrible storm season doesn't bother us in Texas for any reason.
Hopefully gas prices don't fucking kill me.
Hopefully we never see a nuclear war.
Hopefully I can someday stop listening to Flobots so that they can, in turn, through the lack of their music going into my head, stop making me sincerely believe that the governments going to get us all killed before our already untimely deaths of 2012, as (not really) predicted by the Mayans.
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[16 Mar 2008|01:36am] |
party
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[12 Mar 2008|09:47am] |
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please, play me anything at all |
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let me be clear.
im on a search. a search for anyone who i can talk to and can relate to on the topic of music. what im looking for, a million people would claim they are, and they're not. o-p-e-n m-i-n-d-s. i have a few people i can get kind of close to being on the same page as, but it drives me absolutely insane and infuriates me that theres not one person i can totally be on the same page with. i will say that my friend ben is pretty damn close. this all started when i was being weird and sitting up all night watching/reading interviews with musicians i idolize, and even some i dont really idolize but that a lot of people do. and the thing that kept shocking me with every single interview was what these people were saying they listened to. it was the widest, craziest ranges, and usually was so far away from what they often create. this was so trivial but blew my mind because my world is full of snickering, immature, bullheaded, homophobic, egotistical, prideful, cocky, shitty fucking critics who think they don't have anything left to learn. who the fuck am i to judge the decisions regarding anyones creation but my own??!! i am no one. ive done nothing. i am a figure in a rough estimate. hardly. so the amount of anger this thought sends through my fucking body when i think about it is seriously yet to be matched not just because of the obvious, that most people are like this or the fact that it even exists, but also because i know i used to be the same way, and that thought makes me even more mad at myself that i was ever so fucking lame. not only that, but i was probably the motherfucking ringleader of this suck-fest at a younger age. dont get me wrong, theres some times where i catch myself slipping, but im proud to say that by working really hard on listening to everything with open arms and trying to learn from it all, this is happening less and less with time. i have 1,000,000 other things to work on to improve myself. but when i rang in this year i told myself i would work on this, and excess.
"i was just a boy like any other.
i thought i was something fierce.
i thought i was ten times smarter."
-jimmy eat world
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[04 Mar 2008|04:11am] |
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ben snoring and cartoons |
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i have not been a successful leader in the LJ Revival. More than anything, I don't really have much to say, and what I do have to say, I doubt most of you would care enough to read through. I was just away for like 5 weeks. We lived in Texas and recorded a little less than half of the album. Basically, I'll be home for the next 6 or 7 weeks working a ton trying to save up towards my endless need for new equipment, and then I'll be back in Texas for like 6 or 7 weeks finishing the album. This will pretty much sum up February...
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[20 Jan 2008|04:10am] |
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regina spektor |
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"self,
you arrogant, critical swine.
absorb, expand, ALL.
fucking ALL.
an open mind works both/ALL ways."
i recorded myself saying that today. frustrations with myself, my surroundings, my past, my town, my family, my friends, and how these things affect my music are all starting to show and pour out of me. i wish i knew of a logical and feasible way to go to a place where i could find and surround myself with open, educated, experienced, positive minds. im feeling restrained. i want to better myself, and not assume i know all there is to know, and i want the people around me to feel the same. i want to challenge myself and try to accept my imperfections and then grow from them. im not destroying myself over this, but i would love to be able to make music the best way i can imagine. unfortunately, i dont have the resources.
i dont feel like anyone understands, and really, i couldn't expect them to.
for now, ill just keep mentally blaming Pennsylvania, which is so Pennsylvanian of me.
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[04 Jan 2008|04:24am] |
i hope everyone enjoyed their holidays. mine went well. I've definitely had better in both, but the last thing I'm going to do is complain about the positivity brought on by Christmas and ringing in a new year. I had this idea of presents for every friend I could think of. It wasn't anything amazing, but I thought about getting a bunch of blank cds and cases. Then I was going to make all of my friends copies of my top 3 albums of all time, each with a small card or something similar wishing them the same joy that each album brought me over the years. Regardless of the fact that I'm sure they all would already have these albums, I thought it would've made a nice gesture. Had I found the time or extra money for this project, the albums would have gone (in order)....
1. Brand New - Deja Entendu
2. The Get Up Kids - Something to Write Home About
3. Kevin Devine - Put Your Ghost to Rest
Something involving the Paul not making this list was a real battle for me, but I only wanted to include the albums that completely changed my life forever and really blew me away at that point in my life, which I don't feel he's made yet. I do, however, believe he's about to. If you don't know who THE Paul, I don't want to be the one to break it to you that you've been missing out, but if you're lucky enough to see him, you'll know in that moment who he is before anyone even tells you.
Now that you all know what you're getting from me next year, I'll move on.
I talk a lot about my band and this album we've been writing, so I thought I'd post a link where some of you could actually peep a demo for the album. I'm almost certain this song (tentatively titled "Bridges") will make the album, though a different version. Let me know what you think!
http://media.putfile.com/Bridges---Rough-Demo
happy new year, y'all.
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[25 Dec 2007|02:33am] |
fuck. another night sitting up trying to make this album worth listening to.
20 songs written (both demoed and yet to be).
of the demoed 16, how many are worthy? fucking 7.
once the other 4 are done i think we'll be looking at a worthy 9.
thats not enough. fuck. 3 weeks.
within exactly 3 weeks I'd like to write at least 4 more worthy songs.
we can't afford to allow ourselves the right to put out anything that isn't to the best of our ability.
Manchester Orchestra is a great band. im sure you know this.
i love my dad. sometimes i think you should give the people you care about a random call and let them know how much they mean to you, even if it makes you feel a bit awkward.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
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[19 Dec 2007|01:55am] |
A while back I decided I really wanted to extend my DVD collection, so I made a list of movies/tv series I wanted, and I have been adding to it since. With Christmas right around the corner, I thought Id post my list everywhere in case someone wanted to get me something, but didn't know what to get. I recently got Good Burger, Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure, My Cousin Vinny, both Waynes World's, City Slickers 2: The Legend of Curlys Gold, Bachelor Party, and Popeye the Musical (starring Robin Williams). Here is my list as it reads right now... feel free to buy me any of these!
( Read more... )
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[15 Dec 2007|04:14am] |
January - March
1617.75 miles away
new album
studio all day, every day
sweet authentic mexican
people my own age
hhh. come on..
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[08 Dec 2007|07:48am] |
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