The good old days

I guess until Matt gets his computer fixed, we can't get that last set of pictures posted. BUT I have something that can tide us all over, (especially all of us who miss Darren so much).

http://www.luminomagazine.com/CityVision/simondawes.php

Enjoy!
-taylor

Incublog 6

Hey weeples,

I apologize for not updating you sooner. My computer broke about a week and a half ago. I currently write you from Blake's computer. The severe malfunction (and possible demise) of my computer means that I have no access to the photos I've taken since the last blog. I feel terrible about this, but I feel more awful about the fact that I may have lost all my stuff, including movies, music, documents, and massive amounts of invaluable pornography. But I won't lay that burden on you guys. Hopefully sometime over the next week, once I get home (after they surely fix my computer), I'll be able to post those pictures.

So, since the visual aspect of the tour blogging is currently postponed, I think I'll save the journaling for when those pictures can actually go up. For your own peace of mind though, Wylie's leg is slowly healing, and we're all barely surviving. I've dropped down to a measly 87 lbs., Taylor contracted polio, and Blake lost his arm to leprosy. But Wylie's leg is healing--thank God. We're home soon, and we're all very excited. Excited to get home to mom's sweet cookin', excited to get home to our bestest friends. Excited to get home to TAYLOR'S ACOUSTIC SHOW ON SEPT. 9 -- YOU SHOULD ALL BE THERE EVEN IF YOU'RE NOT FROM LOS ANGELES!

There's not much else to say right now. I'm sorry once again for not letting you guys know what was up sooner. I promise I'll get the last pics up as soon as possible, and I promise some sort of sweet surprise for the last blog. Thanks guys for reading and responding all along; we miss you all already.

Forever young,
Mati

NOT an Incublog (but a blog nonetheless)

Hey everyone, it's Taylor this time. As you can tell by the wonderful job matt is doing, we're all really enjoying ourselves out here. We only have 3 shows left. Our last one being this Saturday in San Diego. BUT, the night after on September 9th at Tangier in Hollywood, I'm gonna play an acoustic set. I think it'll be a good way to come back home. So anyone in LA and 21+, please come say hello. Hope to see everyone.
-taylor

Incublog FIVE: A cross-country discourse (or a lesson in mindlossnessness)

EDIT: ***NEW DISCLAIMER***
After reviewing the posted blog, it appears as if the pictures were resized to too large a size to be fully viewed on this blog. It doesn't necessarily hinder your ability to tell what's going on in most cases, but it's kind of a bummer. On a good note, though, there are lots of pictures, so enjoy!!

---Begin---

Hey peoples!

I apologize. I am sorry. My soul has shriveled, my mind hath flown. This blog has taken far too long to dribble out of my head like the other molasses that's in there. Matt, Griffin, Chris ™ and Taylor, have begun their cross-country drive from New York to Canada. For those of you not in the know, this tour’s routing has forced us (them) to venture across more than 3,000 miles of land and water in order for us to arrive at our destination within the next five days. Incubus and the tour production staff, though, fly home over this time for a short vacation. BUT NOT THE DAWES! Well, actually, half the Dawes do, while the other half lose their noodles. Here’s what’s up:

Wylie hurt his leg something awful. Or it might be his back. We don’t really know yet. He’s seen doctors, chiropractors, masseuses, MRI doctors, dermatologists, etc. etc. etc. to find out what’s gone on with his leg, and the diagnosis is still uncertain. To convey to you all a better understanding of his condition, Wylie has a difficult time doing almost anything. It pains him to walk (he cannot run), bend down, sit, lie down, sit in a chair, sit in his row, lay in his row, be, live, eat, use the restroom, talk, think, do. Makesaythink. Poor guy. Anyway, long story short, he is staying over these next five days at his grandparents’ apartment in New York City in an attempt to rehabilitate himself. Don’t worry, he’s not just bailing on us: he has physical therapy appointments. And don’t worry again, because he’s flying over to meet us in Canada and finish out the tour. Our hopes and prayers go out to you, gimp.

Blake has undisclosed business going on at home. Even we don’t know why he’s there, really. He will also be flying over to Canada to meet us for the rest of the tour. We wish him luck with whatever it is he is doing back in Los Angeles.

And now for the saddest of parts… Darren (Sauce, Sauz, D-Monay, Money), the man you (we) all came to know and love has left us for good. He came out on tour to help out, and now he’s got his own business to attend to (i.e. living it up in a sweet pad in East Village, NYC. Anyone who wants to know his address and phone number, just ask). Darren, it was a great four weeks. You will be missed, brother.
An homage:




Now now, children – dab those tears, right those frowns, for with every death, we see rebirth. In this case, we see it in young drum slayer, Griffin Goldsmith (Spicy Griff, Griff the Stiff, The Griff, The Stiff), kin of the infamous Taylor Goldsmith. He is 16 years old and full of rotten potential. Unfortunately, he is too young to permanently join the band, but perhaps someday a dream will come true. This is the Griff, do you think they come from the same parents? You be the judge:


Okayokayokayokayokayokayokayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.
So now you’re all pretty much caught up with what’s down. We’re driving in a 12’x8’ van across the country. It sucks, but it’s great. Books, Pokémon, Movies, letters… These are the things that keep us occupied. Now, going back to the future…

Last place we left off was our glorious camping trip in Ohio. Greg got shot in the testicle, we rode down a midnight river, trees were speaking. After this adventure, we continued on back into normalcy over to Columbus, OH. Here, the band did a nice little interview.



They also played a set!



That’s all I got from Columbus. Sorry dudes.

But, from there, we continued to Cleveland, which was even a bit more rocking.
Here is one of the things of which the city is most proud: a mediocre (at best) baseball team. Ha! Got you, suckers!:



Cleveland had a pretty cool ampitheatre. It sat right next to a large body of water. This is what it looked like:



This patio area is also where we happened to partake in our ritualistic cigar-smoking session. Here’s what we look like:







I’m the one sitting in the empty seat.

As for the set, here’s what that looked like:







That's for you, Mr. Man who wanted more performance pictures!

And, for extraneous enjoyment, here’s Mike’s guitar rack. He sure loves his SGs:


After the show, I went to sit on the patio area you saw earlier, and I snapped a picture of some of the skyline at night. It was really pretty:


Oh yea, and here’s SD playing with Incubus during their cover of “Stand By Me:”


MOVING ON!

…To Toronto, Canada. Don’t worry, I’ll tell you aalllll aboooott it.
First of all, this venue was really cool. Their backstage area was almost as big as the performance area itself. We got a really cool dressing room, and the catering company brought us loads of cool Canadian-inspired novelty toys for us to play with. Here’s the dressing room, along with a picture of the silly toys they brought us:



This place also had a really cool patio thing outside of our dressing room, which overlooked a little harbor:


And in the “game room,” they had a pool table, and José and Kilmore from Incubus set up their XBOX station in there.



Oh yea, oh yea! Simon Dawes also had a little interview done while in Canada, but more importantly, one of the interviewers informed us on something that now seems rather questionable. Let’s take a poll. Who here believes that this person’s biological father is black?


This person tried to make this claim (he even showed us a picture of his dad). It became the consensus of the band that this poor kid’s mother had been lying to him his entire life. What do you guys think? I really don’t know what to believe, though I’m leaning in the way of doubt.

Here are some photos from the Toronto show:





After Toronto, we had to head over to New Hampshire. This was quite a drive, both positively and negatively. For one, it was long. Real long. However, it was also really beautiful. We drove through parts of upstate New York and Vermont, and most of the time, it was gorgeous. Here are some photos of the scene, and a little town through which we drove:





Once we got to New Hampshire, Chris finally found his prayer spot. He loves that money. Please don't ask me what he's actually doing, because I have no idea.


Here are some photos from the NH performance:





Here’s a nice man-man love shot of Blake and Mike in a warm leg embrace after the show.


And another cigar session:


-----------Day 3 of blogging----------------
After New Hampshire, we made a hell of a trek down to Philadelphia. We had a hilarious dressing room that looked like some kid's musty basement-room from the 1970s. Tie-Dye curtains over the windows, fake wood walls - it was great. Here are some photos from there:







After our FIRST Philly show, Wylie, Darren, Taylor and I decided we would take an hour and a half train ride out to Neeeewww Yoooorrkk City. Wylie and Darren went early, and Taylor and I went later. Here are a few pictures of the 30th Street train station in Philadelphia:



And here are a few photos from the train:



We got in late that night, so not much happened, but the next day we went around and checked out the city:






We also met up with Julian from The Morning Benders (he and Chris were there mastering their record; quite a happy coincidence!). We all went to a Japanese tea parlor, but had to leave after they informed us that there was a $15.00 minimum per person. It was cool, but screw that place!




And here's Darren's apartment - so cool.




That day, Taylor, Darren and I went to a park and relaxed. On the way there, we discovered a little taste of home: good ol' "Rader Joe's":





We also ran into two of our favorite movie characters of all time: Indiana Jones and Michaelangelo the Ninja Turtle:


After the SECOND Philly show, we all went into NYC for some good times. SD had a show at Jone's Beach, which was just a ridiculous venue. It pretty much sits on the water. Here's Wylie standing outside of our dressing room after just having caught a fish with a spear he fashioned out of a piece of bamboo and the blade from his pocket knife:


Here's what the venue looked like empty:



I feel badly about this, but I didn't get any digital photos from the Jone's Beach show. I ran out of batteries and a completely inopportune time. BUT I got some in time to document the rest of our times in New York. Here are some of those:









Check out these firemen and Darren!



We spent three days in New York, and on the third day, we got some really great breakfast at this bagel place. Check THESE things out:




Later that day, we got to go to Central Park, and I got to ride the subway for the first time in my life! Our friends Ingrid and Ashley took us around. Thanks so much guys!



Check out these sweet kicks:









While in Central Park, we ran into this idiot:


But, he was right next to a merry-go-round, so we rode that. Here's the Griff sitting next to me. It was a totally almost homo-erotic moment. I felt like a kid again.


On coming out of Central Park, we also encountered the John Lennon Memorial. Here's a picture of that, if you haven't seen it:


We also passed by the hotel outside of which John was shot. It was pretty crazy. Here's we are standing outside of the entrance.




After this, we went up to Ashley's apartment, which is in this enormous 60 floor apartment building. Her roof has a roof garden, and just looking through the bars over the edge is scary. Here's what that was like:






And this was about the end of our time in NYC.


AALLLLLLLLLLLRIGGGHHHHHHTTT............ So, this blog has taken me a couple days to write. I started it in the van on the way over here about 4 days ago, and now we're just outside of Seattle at Taylor's uncle's house. A few things that are really nice about being here:
Homecooked meals
Clean, comfortable beds
Lots of trees
Not a van
Clean air
Baseball Game
Good Fish
Rain
Cold Weather
Rain
Cold Weather
Cold Weather
Good food
Taylor's Parents
Awesome Dogs

We went to a Mariner's game, and that was really fun. Griffin knows how to trash-talk, I'll tell you that much. This place is just covered in trees--it's insanity. I've never seen so many trees! I'll post photos of life here on the next blog, but I feel like I should get this one up for now. I really apologize about the length of time it's taken me to get this thing up, and I do realize it's not necessarily the best blog yet, but I'm trying, I really am!

Anyway, like I've said before, you guys are awesome. I can't even BELIEVE that we got 44 comments on that last blog. The band is so happy that they're thinking of upping my payrate from 10 dollars a day to 15! You guys are great, thanks so much, I hope you've enjoyed! Thanks for sticking with us!!

Forever yours,

Matia

Incublog 4

Friends, it's time for a fresh update.

First of all, I want to thank you all for providing a record-breaking (I'm being serious) number of comments on that last blog. Africadabra has never seen anything like it. I feel honored and revitalized! This blog is going to be especially long and enjoyable, featuring lots and lots of pictures as a gift to you guys. Let's try to crack 19 comments and go for 20! I know we can do it.

I think I left us off in Detroit where we spent some time at Orley's manor. If I said Indianapolis, I meant Detroit, because NEXT up was Indianapolis. I have to say Indianapolis, you were quite humid. Miserably humid, in fact. I mean, humidity is humidity, and being from the west coast, it is difficult to appreciate this weird water-air stuff. However, also being cigar smokers, we found a new appreciation for the humidity, as it greatly aids in keeping the cigars from drying out. So, thanks for that.

When we arrived at the venue, it turned out there was going to be somewhat of a delay, so Darren decided to take a peek (not a pee, sorry) off a nearby bridge. Here's what it looked like:

While Darren was checking out the scene, Blake was checking out of reality (this will never get old).



After waiting around a while, we decided to go into town, which, once we got there, we realized was only really comprised of a few tall buildings and a large mall. It was around here that we not only found our cigars, but a few new pairs of shoes for the guys as well. Here's Wylie with his new boat shoes that he's really stoked on. If you ask me, they'll be the new trend in no time.


Here's a view of one of the streets from a large window in the mall:


We noticed a few funny things while walking around downtown. First, they had these really weird "walk" signs. They weren't inanimate hands or white cut-outs of people in walking position, but rather, they were full-size, animate digi-people walking in place. It's hard to describe, but here's what it looked like:

Imagine that thing in motion.

Also, they had horse carriages!


...And homeless guitar players...


So, like I said, after getting our cigars, we got back in the van. But, upon entering, Darren hit his knee on something and flipped out. Quite literally, in fact.

Poor guy.

So, once we got back to the venue, I managed to get a few funny pictures of Darren and Wylie. Just enjoy, I guess:



Then, they started playing, and here are some pictures from there. It was really weird, almost the entire middle section was empty until much later on in the night. But as you can tell, the general admission areas were quite full. Also, check out the skyline in the background. Pretty cool, eh?


For anyone who didn't know how hard Darren rocks:


A Blake Mills solo. Like his funny sleepy-faces, these never get old:


And I just needed a picture of Wylie playing:


SO THAT'S IT! Thanks for reading and... No, HELL no! There's much, much more. From here, we went to Ohio. My camera was dead at the time, so I don't have any pictures, but it's okay, because I got some batteries in time to document all the fun that happened after our first Ohio show.

The reason the next bit of time was so much fun was because we (Simon Dawes, Incubus, and Production) all went on a big camping/rafting trip. After the Ohio show, we all busted out to Wal-Mart to get some goodies for the following day. Some people bought wiffle balls and bats, some got soccerballs, some got fold-up chairs, and some bought air-soft pellet guns with which they could shoot each other. Invading the Wal-Mart at 2:30 in the morning was quite funny. This superstore was located somewhere in the boondocks, so of course the few customers and employees inside were quite shocked to find a fleet of super-energized/excited weirdos raiding the store. And it was quite a raiding - no lie. Here are some pictures to prove it:

Wylie and Darren entering the store:


Then Taylor:


Now we can get into some new introductions...
Ladies and dudes, meet Tim, sound tech:

Trew homie.

Another bromie, Michael the monitor man. 10-4 good buddy.


Here's Greg and Shawn. Greg works front of house, and Shawn is Jose from Incubus' drum tech.


Oh yea, you guys have to meet Dale. He's a bus driver for one of the production crews. This is one funny man. It's great playing dice with him because I think he has a difficult time adding up the numbers. He also has a tattoo on the inside of his arm of a skull holding a smoking gun with "Death" written in the smoke.

I told him I wanted to take his picture for our blog and he said "Oh, he already has my number." Somebody tell me what that means?

Then, of course, you have to meet Old Man McGee. He did not get out of this thing the entire time we were in there. He even had people get things down from the shelves for him.


In addition to many other things purchased, everybody was looking for the perfect boating hat. Whose was best? You decide.




This is Warndahl, if you don't remember:


We were really surprised to find Lil' Jon in the building. YeeeAAAAaaawww!!


Here's me Wylie and Darren:

No, I'm kidding. That's Ben, the bass player from Incubus. Great dude.

While everybody else was off finding things they wanted to bring camping, Taylor became well attached to a certain, pretty bike.

He learned to ride in that damned Wal-Mart.

That concludes the Wal-Mart excursion. Afterward, we continued on to the campsite and hit the hay at about 5:00 in the morning. Here are some photos of and around our cabin that I got the next morning.



This is how we roll!


Some of the dudes decided to make their way across the river that morning. It was a bit early for my taste.




Now on to some of the day's festivities. But first, here's Sherra. She's Incubus' super-cool private chef on this tour. She was kind enough to bring out all of her supplies and food and whatnot to serve us all. You're the best Sher!

Some of the foods:


This was a game that took up a lot of our time that day. It's called "cornhole." Don't ask me why. Figure out your own technique - it's harder than it looks!

This is the hole into which you have to throw your beanbag from about 30 feet away.


Later, here were Ben and Kil loading up their shotguns. These things were way more powerful and accurate than the automatic ones the rest of the campers got.


This was the result:


Kilmore ended up shooting young Greg (there's a young and an old Greg) in the testicle from about 20 feet. It looked and sounded incredibly painful. If you're wondering, Greg's made a full recovery.

This is the point at which I apologize for not having any more camping/rafting photos, but things just got a little too hectic. I hope that you've gotten a good sense of what it was like out there. Oh yea, and we took a full-moon, midnight raft ride down an almost stagnant river. For me, it was almost a spirit quest.

I hope you're all doing fantastically. It's time for me to go to bed. You know what to do.

Serenity,
Matt

Incublog 3

Hey my friend-pal-buddies!

Sorry it's been a couple days, but much has happened, and accordingly, we've been very busy. The good news for YOU guys is that there's quite a bit to blog about.

So, where did I leave off? I think something like Omaha? Or Iowa? Or wherever that crazy festival was? Anyway, I'm not really sure what city exactly followed, but I think it was Minneapolis, Minnesotta. Correct me if I'm wrong. We had some good times in Minneapolis, I must say. Probably the most notable event was Darren's transformation from what he felt was somesort of a metaphorical caterpillar to a beautiful, grown-up, new hair-cutted butterfly. Here's a real-life video for y'all to catch the low-down.


What a crazy night. Here are some funny pictures of that evening if you can't watch or don't feel like watching the video:








And then here's all of us. But you won't be seeing the author!


Let's see... What else...
Oh, we got to walk around town a little bit, and we ran into this really, really cool bookstore. I forget what it's called, otherwise I'd advertise for them. Here's Taylor in one of the knooks:


Also, there were two book dogs in the store with whom I pretty much fell in love. Here they are (they aren't related, if you wanted to know):



There was also a book bird in there, with whom Darren tried to become a little too friendly. Let's just say he learned that male birds do not have external sexual organs. I was loving the pups, but not in the way that D was loving that bird.


What next, what next...
AH YES! The show. Even though you can't really tell, here's Taylor and Blake on stage with Incubus, soundchecking with "Stand By Me," a cover that Incubus has begun to integrate into their set.


And what a fabulous audience! Here are some of you. If you'd like to have yourself removed from the picture, please don't sue, just send us a nice little comment:):


But really, we are so appreciative of your guys' enthusiasm and your contribution to keeping us alive and fed on this tour. You were awesoooommmeee!!
Here are a few other pics from there:



Here are some buddies of ours that were sitting sidestage. They are in a really cool punk-metal band called 2cents. Be sure to check them out if you're into that kind of music.


Next, we rode on out of there into Chicago, Illinois. SD played at a venue that was right next to the water, just outside of the city, but you could see the skyline behind the stage. It was really cool:



I saw a contraption with which I was highly unfamiliar while I was out and about in the city. Perhaps one of you could explain to me what this is and what it does:


Now here are some SD pics before/during the show:





Also, some sort of media company was around to interview SD after the show. Apparently, it was a very compelling interview.


After leaving Chicago, we were on our way to Indiana. The show went very well--here's a photo:


Despite a wonderful audience and a great performance, what made Indianapolis so great was a friend of Wylie's (and now of the rest of us) named Orley. He came to the show and offered us a free night's stay at his house. He informed us that there was plenty of room for all of us, but we wouldn't realize the magnitude of what he was saying until he actually brought us over.

I don't have any pictures of the night we spent there, but I do have a few of the next morning, which will hopefully provide you with an idea of how amazing this house truly is.

First of all, the house is three stories tall. On the top floor, there are something like 8 bedrooms. The hallways seem to extend as you walk down them, almost like some sort of ghost-fun house. This was the first time I had ever gotten lost on one floor of a house before. Here's a photograph of one of the hallways on the bottom level of the house.


This is Wylie sitting at the far end of one of the many dining tables set throughout the house:


Here's Taylor's "Imagine" moment, playing a piano by a large window overlooking part of the yard.


Now getting into the amenities of the house, which were obviously the most mind-blowing to me.
1) They had a pool table!


2) They had a movie theatre room (with automated reclining leather chairs)!



3) They had a maaaassssiiiveee front yard with a sweet firepit (see Darren and Taylor for perspective).


4) They (we) had homemade french toast (thanks, Orley's mom!).


5) They had a huge steam shower (picture not available).

6) Etc., etc.

7) Here's Orley. Thanks so much dude!


I'm not going to lie, it's taken me a couple of days to get this blog together. This stuff isn't easy! We're now in Cleveland, Ohio, and I have more pictures of the past few days to show you guys (including those from the Incubus/Simon Dawes camping trip we did yesterday on our day off). I appreciate you guys reading my entries, and I appreciate you even more when you comment in some way to let me know you're reading. I know there's gotta be more than 8 or 9 of you reading these things.

Okay pals, keep me encouranged and motivated to continue in this pursuit of photographic tourism!

Best,
Matt

P.S. Who can I bill for my advancing case of carpal-tunnel syndrome?
P.P.S.
P.P.P.S. Nadia (and whoever else cares), we have all been listening to a lot of Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Darren's listening to his jazz, I've been listening to some ambient music, Blake is listening to folky stuff as well... I'll get you a more detailed list in the upcoming blog, but I'm in a hurry now! Thanks!

VIDEO TEST!

Does this work? It's the ending of The Awful Things during the Kansas City performance.