(photos from touring with Dark Dark Dark in Belgium and France)

On tour with Dark Dark Dark in Europe:

- Dark Dark Dark playing at a tiny 300 year old bar in Gent, Belgium. Meeting an eccentric local artist and his dog Willy and staying at his house. Leaving Brian Kelly there on his way to Berlin.
- Walking around Gent in the rain and wondering why everything was closed on a Monday. And then realizing it is Armistice Day.
- Sitting in while Dark Dark Dark do a live radio show on 93FM Primitive Radio.
- Staying with Cyril (who put out Dark Dark Dark's newest release Snow Magic) and his parents in Gent and being thoroughly stuffed on four-course meals and great bread. The room I slept in was made to look like a castle.
- All of us having simultaneous nightmares while sleeping in a house in France that is an ex-convent built on a graveyard.
- Wandering around the Cathedral in Reims, and being impressed with how beautiful it is. By far the best stained glass windows I have ever seen.
- Going with Dark Dark Dark to a cultural center (think small YMCA) in the suburbs of Reims where they opened for From Monument To Masses. FMTM was pretty psyched on DDD, and were very friendly.
- Driving to Paris, all on small country back roads to avoid the highway tolls.
- Parking in Paris is a nightmare.
- Wandering around Paris with Marshall and Nona in search of sandwiches. We eventually found them, along with a park to eat them in.
- When asked by a stranger on the street what she was doing in Paris, Nona replied in French: "I play the music of your heart."
- Hanging out at the squat Miroiterie before the show.
- Dark Dark Dark playing a small intimate cozy show at the squat to a packed room. The crowd wouldn't stop clapping even after they had played their "fake out" encore.

Dark Dark Dark performing in Reims, France.

Band playing a cover with toy instruments at Miroiterie, a squat in Paris.

MP3:

This is good, but much better live. All the more reason to catch one of Dark Dark Dark's live shows. . .

- Dark Dark Dark - Benefit Of The Doubt

A band's place in myspace.

Bass Pro Shop is incredible.

Victorious.

Prop 8 is a stake in the heart of love.

(photos from the opening of the Miss Rockaway Armada's installation at Stroomhuis in Eindhoven, as part of the show "Heartland" at the Van Abbemuseum, full gallery here)

- Riding down the Dommel river in Eindhoven as dusk turned to night on one of the three boats made by some of the crew for the installation.
- Tattoo artist Brian Kelly set up shop in the printmaking studio at Stroomhuis during the opening. A handful of the crew got some new ink, myself included. One of our group didn't have any money or anything to trade, so he offered up part of his leg to let Bryan practice with a new super-wide fill needle.
- We've had a really great experience here in Eindhoven, but were a bit put off by how rude some of (very drunk) guests were at the opening. From tagging on some of the paintings, to badgering one of our performers off the stage, and even one guy who was having some inappropriate-touching problems with our female crew members. We were kind of hoping Mr. Touchy-Feely would come back the second night so we could tackle and hogtie him.
- Some of the installation getting wrecked by drunken craziness on the opening night, including the giant sign from the Van Abbemuseum we had outside.
- Mike and John getting wasted and busting out some crazy freestyling for a good half an hour (see video below).
- Waking up one morning and finding a giant wok full of full lobsters. They were from the night before and were all cold and fishy, but whatever. Lobster is lobster.
- Part of the installation was a small diamond cave inside a treasure chest with a huge caveman SpongeBob Squarepants. It also was a very cozy bedroom and effective hot-box.
- It's interesting to have helped build an installation with such varied parts as: a bar, a stage, a shadow puppet screen, two crows nests, a paper chandelier, a chapel, a cave, a dragons tail, and even a merch table.
- Wrapping up the opening weekend with a movie + pizza night in the installation. We piled a bunch of cot mattresses on the floor with blankets and watched movies projected on the shadow puppet screen.It was cold in there, but everyone was all on top of each other so it was fine. Spons brought us curly fries too. And shoarma pizza kinda sucks, by the way.

Miss Rockaway Armada floats their boats in front of the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven.

Jonathan Kaiser from Dark Dark Dark perfoming at Stroomhuis in Eindhoven.

Dark Dark Dark performing at the Miss Rockaway Armada opening at Stroomhuis in Eindhoven.

Dark Dark Dark performing with Rebecca at the Miss Rockaway Armada opening at Stroomhuis in Eindhoven.

John and Mike's drunken freestyling at Stroomhuis in Eindhoven.

MP3:

- 50 Million + Hickey - A New England

A band's place in myspace.

(photos from the second half of our stay in Eindhoven during the construction of our installation as part of the show "Heartland")

- I am able to convince friends of mine from Brooklyn, the band Team Robespierre, to come and play at Burgers in Eindhoven before they head to Amsterdam while touring Europe. A bunch of the Rockaway crew goes to the show and the band plays to a pretty full (although somewhat static) house.
- Andre cooking amazing dinners for us while we watch YouTube videos about stuff we've done.
- The separated bike lane here are one of the best parts of the Netherlands. However they cause you to let your guard down, which is partially why I almost collided head-on with a motor scooter tearing down the wrong way on the bike path.
- Going to the Election Brunch at the Van Abbemuseum and feeling a bit out of place since we couldn't understand all the things being said about our own country and election. At the same time it was probably better we couldn't participate, it probably helped move things along quicker.
- While I was checking out the museum's exhibition of the "Heartland" show, I stumbled upon a video featuring my friend Dana at the Braddock, PA space talking about the artist-run space. Love the randomness.
- Did I mention how good stroop wafels are?

Team Robespierre at Burgers in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

MP3:

- Rodriguez - Sugar Man

A band's place in myspace.

(illustrations from a Dutch newspaper's "road to the White House" board game)

It happened. We won. My little sister should be proud of all the pavement she pounded for Obama in Ohio. Small things can add up to big differences.

Also slightly related to the cultural differences + politics thing. Even the paint job on the benches here in the Netherlands seem to reflect the Democratic victory.

MP3:

- Bruce Springsteen - The Ghost Of Tom Joad (feat. Tom Morello)

A band's place in myspace.

The Miss Rockaway Armada in Eindhoven, Netherlands:

- Going to a thrift store in an old school to find John some new pants after he blew the ass out of them. The old lady that was helping us insisted on leading him by the hand around the school showing people the hole, and then made him change out of them before he could leave the store.
- Rescuing messed up abandoned bikes and fixing them up to get around.
- Staying and working at the long-established squat Stroomhuis run by Andre, who on top of being amazingly generous, also happens to be an incredible chef.
- Working outside in the cold/rain.
- Competing for who has sustained the worst concussion so far.
- Feeling almost respectable when the Van Abbemuseum throws a welcome dinner for us.
- Finding it to be colder and damper than expected, which leads to needing and the subsequent hunt for long underwear (which resulted in settling for blue camo stretchy pants from the little boys section of a smoke-damage store).
- The resident chickens keeping us company, roosting in the bar we built, and of course shitting everywhere.
- The group attending an art opening at MU, and then promptly turning it into a crazy dance party. The momentum came down a bit after one of the crew broke the glass of a display case, but only momentarily. I heard there was an after party at a nearby bar where the remaining Rockaway members got thrown out, more than once.
- Really enjoying waking up (in the living room) of the nice artist housing and peering out into the back courtyard space. One almost is forced to feel civilized regardless of how late you were up hanging from dusty scaffolding screwing pieces of mismatched soggy scrapped wood together into something you hope can support it's own weight.

MP3:

This is what we listened to really loud on repeat for a whole day while working. It reverberated off the walls and made your chest hum. It was an amazing thing, transforming the feel of mangling wood and nails in a tiled room dimly lit by haphazardly placed bare bulbs.

- Earth - Land Of Some Other Order

A band's place in myspace.

Apologies for taking so long to get Bike Kill up, I left almost immediately to meet up with other members of the Miss Rockaway Armada in Eindhoven in the Netherlands to work on an installation here (more on that soon). Bike Kill was fun this year, a bit aggro and a lot of people got their bags and stuff stolen at the after party, but aside from the soaking rain that came late it was a ton of crazy fun as usual. There's a chance that this may have been the last one for a while, let's hope not.

MP3:

Back in high school this was the shit.

- Shotmaker - Failure

A band's place in myspace.

(photos from the Dillinger Four record release show at Danbro Warehouse in Brooklyn, full gallery here)

Stupid Saturn Return.

MP3:

It's a cover too.

- Love Is All - So Far Away

A band's place in myspace.

We showed up in the middle of the first night. Brett forgot tent poles and went with a tee-pee instead. Where's Sandy?

We started the day off with a swim at Pussy Rock.

Strubing and the beer-sip front-flip.

Some people actually even skated.

The rest jousted.

Victory.

The show started. No burning coffins this time though.

Lawnchair tattoos were handed out to the brave.

Frontside 5.

Hightower.

Demassek got together for two rounds of the same song.

A townie brought a minibike, which was quickly confiscated and used to its fullest abilities throughout the night.

Screwboo at 9:13 PM.

Screwboo at 10:35 PM.

Screwboo's belly at 1:16 AM.

Luigi Hip was just filming the madness when he handed his camera off and decided that he was gonna jump the fire Evil Knievel style. Four tries later he was riding away in glory.

There's a reason someone brought champagne.

Good night.

The next morning I saw this guy shotgun a Bud and instantly pass out.

Rob surveys the damage.

They were all out of coffee.

Screwboo at 12:18 PM.

I don't think Sandy remembers being in Maine.

(photos from this year's Zombiecon, full gallery here)

Zombiecon 2008 kicked off on the streets of Manhattan this year with the rise of the undead i-bankers. Looking to the near future end-of-times: the economy has crumbled, banks have closed down, food and fuel have become scarce, and then the zombie attacks began... First stop on the crawl was the Manhattan Mall, which would have been better if most of it wasn't under construction. A little more foot-dragging later and the zombies arrived at the perennial favorite, Macy's. Photo ops were had, small children were mildly frightened, and employees got a reason to scowl and use their walkie-talkies. The last stop in midtown was Victoria's Secret. They were not amused.

The zombie horde then moved to Union Square and the first bar stop at The Continental. Drinking, some NSFW situations, and synchronized dancing to a projection of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" followed. The zombies then descended upon their intended target, Wall Street. As it was late on a Saturday, it was a bit of a ghost town. However the famous Bronze Bull was beset upon and left a bloody, zombified mess.

MP3:

And the winner of the "new favorite song" Ninjasonik remix ablum giveaway is: Nic. With this song by the Found Sound Orchestra.

- Found Sound Orchestra - Little La La

A band's place in myspace.

(Fucked Up with the Vivian Girls and Inepsy at Market Hotel)

This show was one of the more damaging that I've been to in a while. Between getting someone else's sweat in my eyes, elbowed in the ear, buttons ripped off my shirt, a couple crowd-surfer kicks to the head, belly-flopped on several times by the same fat guy, and then having a girl wipe her blood on my face, it seemed a bit more intense than usual. I highly recommend catching Fucked Up live if you can.

MP3:

I usually don't post more than one song per album from a band, but since you can get this free (legally) elsewhere I figure it can't be too bad. You can also see the video for it too.

- Matt & Kim - Daylight

A band's place in myspace.

(Dillinger Four and NOFX at Irving Plaza, capped off with Patty's backstage antics)

I may have given up on music photography as a way to make a buck, but it's still pretty damn fun. Thanks again to the Dillinger Four guys for showing me a good time.

MP3:

Showing some love.

- Dillinger Four - Noble Stabbings

A band's place in myspace.

(Fucked Up performing at the Rogan Bowerie store)

More photos of Fucked Up from the Market Hotel when I have a moment to edit it all. Listen to the song below and picture them in the meantime.

MP3:

- Fucked Up - Reset The Ride

A band's place in myspace.