b natural. c sharp.

I haven’t posted in over a year, eek! To sum it up it’s been a good but busy year full of grad school, going to weddings, and getting married myself! Hopefully I’ll do some interesting tours or something fun to post about again soon, but in the meantime here is our best of 2010 mix! It includes some of our favorite songs of the year as well as a bonus xmas track recorded by Wyatt and written by our good friend Todd Patton. My personal favorite albums of the year are by Rooney, Apples in Stereo, and Belle & Sebastian but holy crap Taylor Swift takes the cake! She’s had some great songs in the past but Speak Now is an incredible pop album, plus kudos to her for writing all of the songs. Enjoy!

Download: Wyatt and Mandy’s Best of 2010

1 - Days - Sambassadeur
2 - True Love 1980 - Ash
3 - Better Than Revenge - Taylor Swift
4 - The Movies - This Is Me Smiling
5 - Bad Bad World - Guster
6 - 12 to the Moon - Riverdales
7 - Just a Little While - Michael Gregory
8 - Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.) - Katy Perry
9 - Murmurs In The Dark - The Methadones
10 - Stay Awhile - Taylor Locke & The Roughs
11 - Hanging On The Telephone - Kurt Baker
12 - When You Told Me Not To Go - Tom Brislin
13 - Happiness Has A Half-Life - Palmdale
14 - Derezzed - Daft Punk
15 - Maybe There’s No Point - The Tattle Tales
16 - Sugar Cane - Jed Whedon and the Willing
17 - Telephone - Pomplamoose
18 - Hey Elevator - The Apples In Stereo
19 - The Like In I Love You - Brian Wilson
20 - Luck is a Silver Screen - Billy Kilgannon
21 - Kissin U - Miranda Cosgrove
22 - Dick Simmons - The Dopamines
23 - I Want The World To Stop - Belle & Sebastian
24 - So Far So Close - Radio Days
25 - You’re What I’m Looking For - Rooney
26 - Picture Window - Ben Folds & Nick Hornby

This morning we stuffed ourselves full of Denny’s before heading out to Los Angeles for my last show of the tour. Gollum flew home so it was just the three of us now. I finally drove for the first time, which is pretty awesome considering we’d been on the road for two weeks. I don’t really like driving (I’d rather be knitting and/or watching Arrested Development) but it’s a necessary evil of touring and I’m willing to pull my weight. After 4 hours of AZ/CA desert I got to stretch out in the back for the ride into the city.

Since the drive was longer today, we went straight to Starbucks (priorities people!) then to the Knitting Factory. I was very excited to be visiting LA for the second time, especially since it was kind of hectic and stressful during KG’s experience last year. There were fun opening bands including The Wooly Bandits who had an awesome lady drummer and a singer decked out in a scandalous velvet tiger print body suit. Meeeooww! My friend Eric, KG’s ex-guitarist Greg, and ex-Second Saturday bassist Dane all came out to the show so it was awesome to see them! I also got to meet Wyatt’s songwriting partner in crime, Linus of Hollywood and his lovely wife. It was a fun last show and my only regret was not having more time to spend in town!

We got a hotel near LAX and I went right to bed. Unfortunately I had to get up in about 5 hours to catch the airport shuttle for my flight to Baltimore. I opted to sleep on the floor since we only got one room and I had to be up super early anyway. The room reeked of urine whenever you turned on the A/C so needless to say it wasn’t the best nights sleep ever. After a long and exhausting flight home Thursday, I spent a fun weekend in Baltimore playing with KG and seeing my friends and family.

Overall I had a great time on the tour! Playing guitar and keys was a fun challenge. It was a particularly nice change staying in hotels and not having to worry about the band losing money. The main thing I missed was being with my bandmates and friends. It got to be a little lonely sometimes since I didn’t know anyone extremely well. Nevertheless, everybody on the tour was really nice and I was very excited to see some old friends along the way. I hope I get the chance to do it again soon!

Today we drove to Tempe, AZ which is basically a suburb of Phoenix where we played The Clubhouse. Nothing much to report for the drive since there isn’t a whole lot to see when driving through the desert. It’s very beautiful, but pretty monotonous after a while. Although I’ve toured for longer periods, two weeks is about the point where I start really missing my bed and especially my personal space. I’m getting excited to visit Baltimore, then finally head back to Nashville on Monday.

The show looked to be what The Queers call a “gig of the century,” aka very poorly attended. By the end things filled out a bit as they usually do and it wasn’t too bad. We got some good Mexican food after the show before going back to the hotel for the evening.

In addition to going to bed early, we got a late checkout so we got to sleep in and didn’t have to leave until 1pm. I slept for about 11 hours and it was AWESOME. The next show was in Albuquerque which was an easy three hour drive.

When we got downtown there was a helicopter flying around and cops everywhere blocking off streets. It turns out they had evacuated a federal building because of two suspicious backpacks. While we were in the club we heard a small explosion when the bomb squad blew up the bags! Here’s a link to the story: http://www.koat.com/news/21221820/detail.html

After loading in we went down the street to a cool coffee shop/restaurant and hung out there for a while. I went back and changed my strings then went to use my meal ticket at a place down the street. My ultimate goal of being in NM was to get a meal with green chiles was a success. I got a spicy black bean burger with jack cheese and green chiles. So good! I wish I could take some home with me but they’d have to last 3 more days until I got to a freezer.

The Launchpad was a nice venue and the attendance was decent. We a played a fun set with some more of the pop songs we haven’t played since the beginning of tour. Fortunately I remembered them without my extra cheat sheet, which I had left at the cafe!

After the show we drove a few hours to cut our drive time down for tomorrow. We stopped in Gallup, NM and called it a night.

Unfortunately our lovely 1 hour drive yesterday was followed by a not-so-lovely 9 hour one to Las Cruces, NM. We also had to be at the venue by 5 so there was no sleeping in for us after last night’s late show. I didn’t get much sleep myself because chances of snoring increase greatly when you’re in a room with three guys. I’m a really light sleeper and it totally sucks. Wyatt got me this iPhone app called “Easy Relax” which plays ambient noise or different soundscapes. It has helped me sleep a lot better on this tour, but I like to sleep on my side and my noise canceling headphones aren’t super conducive to that. Fortunately there was a lot of time to nap in the van. After getting a breakfast sandwich and juice at Starbucks, I did just that.

The show was at this pretty cool place called the CodeRED Cafe. It had video game chairs and big TVs set up so you could watch football or rent and play various games. It also had a Mrs. Pacman machine (a KG favorite!) AND Pacman and Mrs. Pacman bathrooms! Although the crowd wasn’t huge, the kids were enthusiastic and had a good time. The show ended pretty early so we ordered some pizza and got to bed at a reasonable hour for once.

Austin is just a little over an hour away from San Antonio. Yay for short drives! The Austin City Limits music festival was this same weekend so hotels were packed and prices were crazy. This was the first night that we all four shared a room, but Joe was nice and let me have a bed to myself. It was super rainy all day so everyone was pretty tired and out of it until we got to the venue.

We played at Red 7 right in the heart of the hip little downtown area of Austin. Before the show started I walked along 6th street and checked out some cool stores with The Leftovers and fun local opener, The Sweethearts. I also got a delicious veggie enchilada down the street from the club. It was a really fun night since I had some friends in town and met a bunch of awesome new people. I thought the set went great; we didn’t do any new songs and the sound was awesome. However, I was bad and didn’t take any pictures at all… oops!

After picking up a new bass amp at the music store we headed to San Antonio. I watched Shaun of the Dead on the easy two hour drive. We stopped at another barbecue place again but this one was a lot cooler. It was a tiny place called Van’s Barbecue and only had about 10 menu items total. All the food is served on wax paper.

The show was at this kind of crappy 2-stage venue appropriately called Rock Bottom. One highlight was this super awesome guitarist wanted ad posted on a bulletin board. The description is pretty amazing and you know they are serious because of the sweet lightening bolts.

However gross the place might have been, it was probably the best attended show and the craziest crowd. On the first note of the first song I got beer in my eye. I had to back up several feet from the edge of the stage because I kept getting hit in the face with my microphone by kids going nuts. It was also hotter than any show I’ve ever played - I was literally dripping with sweat. You could barely breath in the place by the end because there was no fresh air coming in or air conditioning.

I’ve noticed a high correlation of “new songs” to exciting shows, so naturally I had to play two new songs on stage again in addition to the ones I learned from last night. It was so hot and crazy that I didn’t really care - I just did my best and faked it. The set is going further and further away from being all pop which is kind of a bummer, but the crowd definitely responds more excitedly to the more punk songs.

A four hour drive to Corpus Christi was in store for us this morning. I can’t remember what I did in the van - apparently nothing exciting - probably played Mario on the DS. We did stop at a crazy Texas barbecue place that basically gave me a whole chicken plus three sides. It was intense and I barely scratched the surface of the monstrous plate. Their menu was really intimidating but the food was pretty good.

When we got into town we stopped at a coffee shop (I got a strawberry mango smoothie - I am resisting getting addicted not to mention it was 90 degrees) and then a cool local music store. This was my first time in Corpus Christi so I decided to go exploring by myself after we checked in the hotel. I knew we were close to the water so I headed out with my camera and a towel. Originally I ended up on a pier and walked around this neat marina. I met some awesome bearded fisherman that were selling shrimp, who were kind enough to point me in the direction of a beach. I headed that way and eventually came upon a nice little beach all to myself. The weather was beautiful - I love the sea air! I had a little time left once I walked back, so I took a refreshing dip in the pool before getting ready to go to the venue.

The show was decent and they fed us which is always a plus. The venue is called The House of Rock and Roll. It’s a weird little town, almost deserted, I guess since it’s off season and everyone is back in school. Joe decided to do some new songs, but fortunately he reserved them for the encore so I just sat out and put them on my “to learn” list for tomorrow.

Today was one of the longest drives so we got up a little earlier than usual, which sucked after the late night. We drove 7 hours to play Houston, TX at Walter’s on Washington. It wasn’t too bad since I got some sleep, watched the last part of the Beatles Anthology, and put the buttons on a cardigan I’ve had finished for a while.

When we got in town, we didn’t have much time so we quickly checked in our hotel and headed over to the venue. KG had a sort of bad experience with this place so I wasn’t super thrilled to be back. I was also bummed because the restaurant next door with delicious veggie muffalettas was no longer there! I’m 0 for 2 with returning to good food spots. The show was decent, I was happy with my performance (still no surprise songs!) and it didn’t end super late. We got some fun group shots afterwards!

After getting some food at Denny’s, Gollum (merch guy) and I decided to do some late night laundry. There were two washers and dryers at the hotel this time and no stupid people holding us up - yay for clean clothes!

I can’t believe a whole week has passed! One week to go.

After a fairly easy drive to Mobile, we checked in our hotel. I tried to do laundry but there was only one washer and dryer, so I waited for Dave to do a load first. Unfortunately, some lady with neon thongs had left her laundry in the washer. He moved her load and gave her extra time, but she didn’t come until he had just put his clothes in the dryer. She missed her chance but it screwed things up for me because at that point there wasn’t enough time for me to wash and dry mine. Laundry would have to wait another day, but it would have to be soon because I had about 3 days worth of underwear left!

We played the Alabama Music Box, a cool venue owned by Dave who is one of KG’s good friends in Mobile. If you’ve seen my past tour blogs, he was the one who lived on the awesome island where we played with starfish. He’s always very good to us and we’ve stayed with him just about every time since (although he unfortunately moved from the island). Our Pensacola friends Chris, Tim, James, and their friend Marcus also came to see the show! Chris goes way back to our tour with Second Saturday in January of 2004. He’s an awesome promoter and great friend, who we also stay with anytime we play in Pensacola or Ft. Walton Beach. Yay for friends!

I was disappointed to find out that a yummy place down the street called Picklefish had closed. As soon as I saw we were playing Mobile, I had my heart set on an order of their fried pickles but had no such luck. This was by far the latest show we’ve had so far and didn’t get done playing until around 1:30am. By the time we stopped at Waffle House and got settled in bed at the hotel it was 3am. I was spoiled by those awesome early shows - on one night we were done playing by 10pm and it ruled!