Almost to New Orleans

Tour is catching up with me. You notice about three weeks in that you no longer care about shaving or that smell in the RV. It becomes you, you become tour. I've noticed the same feeling on backpacking trips before. My Dad and brother, Eric, are out on the trail in Utah right now. I wonder if they've broken the smell-barrier yet, when you're so used to the group smell, it disappears.

After the first week, weather in the Midwest became nicer, sunnier, and more humid (the call of The South). Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, St. Louis, and the big shocker of the tour Dayton, were all fun shows. We are earning fans, one at a time. That is the model now. Gone are the days of hiding backstage, coming out and playing your hour set only to retreat behind a curtain again. God forbid anyone stop you to ask about the music. Music was more mysterious in the 70's. Now Twitter and Facebook and Myspace and Google Earth and the CIA make being anonymous pretty difficult. Some bands, like TOOL, have somehow managed to keep their personal identities under wraps while attaining a huge level of success. Others are like John Mayer, who just got into worldwide hot water for his tweets.

The point is, a record deal and darkened limo are not the golden chalice of music anymore. I looked up Miley Cyrus the other day because I have a friend who wrongfully was ripped apart last week on American Idol, and I was curious who the celebrity vocal coach retained as a label. Hollywood Records it turns out. These are the same people who bring you The Jonas Brothers and countless other acts who grow up as "artists" in the Disney Conglomerate. In other words, the highest selling record for who knows how long in 2009 was put out by the same people who imparted Mickey Mouse to our national heritage.

No, we are doing excellent in our 1987 Mallard Sprinter, thank you. And our record label doesn't have a limo, it has a hot tub. The party comes to us.

Speaking of Mountain Size Records, seeing pictures of our album being mastered by who some call the master, David Glasser, both Grammy's in plain view on the console in his studio, was awesome. I can't wait for Actual Natural to come out. It's the best sounding thing we've done and it will be a platform for our success in the near future. Brad Smalling deserves a lot of credit for pulling Frogs out of a lablel-less, album-less vacuum and getting our record out in time for summer. We are already seeing increased attention from booking agencies and potential managers. Real life people who want to help bands! They're out there!

As I write this we are pulling into Lexington, KY. Needless to say, we've left the Midwest and it's vast expanse and entered the humid South. Frogs like the humidity. We'll see shows in new markets this week, Charleston (beach!) and Greensboro, then on to my favorite city in the world, New Orleans. First we'll stop in Nashville next Monday, a city I never could have guessed I would have such an intense and long relationship with. We will play these shows alongside a rising force in the funk scene, Lubriphonic. We've even received wind that some very important agency people might be observing the Nashville show. Can't wait to blow their minds.

Check http://www.frogsgonefishin.com and http://www.mountainsizerecords.com for album info and tour schedule!

InsiderIowa.com - The Intersection of Big Ideas and News - The Insider Sessions

Check out this sweet video interview we did during set-break in the RV at our Ames, IA show. Thanks Erika!


InsiderIowa.com - The Intersection of Big Ideas and News - The Insider Sessions

Week Two: Actual Natural Tour

The following is a tour journal written for Frogs Gone Fishin's Tour Blog:

We are now into our second week of tour and looking forward to what the northerly reaches of the Midwest have in store for us. Nebraska and Iowa are full of friendly folk, and a big shout out to everyone who helped us there! The weather, however.... gray and dull for the whole first week. If it wasn't for Alie V taking us in and feeding us we might have lost it out there in the fog, rain, snow or whatever you Iowans label that gray blanket covering the state in the winter.

After a comfy sleep in a warm cabin, provided by our electric hook-up at the RV site, we woke up yesterday to showers and breakfast (courtesy of Mark) for Trevor's birthday! But as Madison, WI (biggest college party town 2006 according to Playboy) is a much more appropriate locale for birthday bashes, we set off early and rolled into Madison just in time to start the festivities.

Our travels yesterday provided a brief break from the gray-cold cloud. The golden pinkish sunset at the Iowa-Wisconsin border was enough to remind us that we are headed south, eventually. The past couple days have been incredibly productive and we picked up some dates in Nashville and Charleston, the latter being a new market for us. Warm weather, here we come!

We have some business to take care of first, however. Frogs have been to Milwaukee and Chicago before and this time we are bringing new tunes and playing three nights in Chi-town! Two summers ago, Frogs spent time lounging around Lollapalooza in beautiful Grant Park, enjoying days off and limitless music wafting around the grounds outside the festival. That same tour we spent several nights absorbing the local stories and local beer in Milwaukee.

Returning to a city, any city, more than a year and a half later is always interesting. On one hand you are so excited to see familiar landmarks that remind you of fun nights during tours' past. On the other, you become a little too nostalgic when faces you used to play for don't come back, reminding you that any market has to be worked on consistently for a number of years to build a fan base there.

The guys had a ridiculous time last night for Trevor's birthday and wasted no time meeting a crew of MC's who kept the rhymes flowing while we bar-hopped. A big shout out to Rob and The Madison crew. Your knack for hustling free birthday shots is uncanny. Hopefully we see you at the show tonight!

This town knows how to party, please believe people. We'll see you at The Frequency tonight in Madison!!!

Back in Business with Bertha, Baby!

We got great news yesterday morning. After a reserved but fun crowd in Lincoln, the Frogs headed to the Nebraska-Wesleyan dorms for some rest, leaving all of our equipment in the bar because we had no trailer attached to an RV to put it in. Bertha was in the shop and the band was uncertain about our immediate touring future. We had to be in Omaha the next day, not to mention 15 more cities in the next three weeks.

I woke up on the floor, as often happens on tour, but to great news as Mark announced that our transmission was not shot as we had feared. Simply a fan clutch! Only the fan clutch? What the hell is a fan clutch? Who cares? It's way less expensive to fix than a tranny and so like that, we borrowed a car from one of our wonderful hostesses and moved our still functioning RV over to the good old Lincoln Lube for some lube and fan clutch work costing a fraction of the time and money the tranny would have.

Two hours in daily life can seem like a long time. Some people only get thirty, maybe forty-five minutes for lunch at their day job but on tour, two hours is just enough time to get settled. Most drives are four to six hours and so sitting for two hours at an auto-shop is not nearly as painful as it sounds, especially when you have the knowledge of exactly what's wrong with your vehicle. It's that awful fear of the unknown, the fear we played through and went to sleep with
that really eats you.

In less than a day after we got Bertha back, she became our life support vehicle. We charged her batteries and filled her with nutritious food. You can relieve yourself at 60 m.p.h. and look out the back window to see the Midwestern skyline slowing sliding backwards. We even took on another soul in Omaha, Travis Jones, our all-around road helper. Watch out for some upcoming Vlog's on Mountain Size Record's website because they might include an interview or two with Travis. He's a character to say the least.

Now we're back in business, baby, blogging while flying down the road near the Iowa/Nebraska border, enjoying the comforts of a life largely left in the last century by generations of RV lovers. It's easy to see why they loved it. It's easy to see why they left it, opting for frequent flier miles and a Prius in the garage instead. We were able to enjoy fajitas on the rig before the show last night, we also get 8 miles to the gallon...

At this very moment, I'm sitting behind Travis while he mouths "ooo.. la la la" in the front seat along with some Fugees tunes pumping out of Pandora on our surround-sound speakers (old Technics for that matter, they sound GREAT). This is the life. And this is mos def' tour season. Whether it's a tranny or a toothbrush, every day is filled with logistical problems while trying to promote your shows in the future. Making great music and meeting new people make it all worth it, so we sincerely hope to see you out there! You can keep and get in touch with the Frogs like this:

Frogs Gone Fishin' Official Website
Mountain Size Records
Facebook
Twitter

Of Course, Of Course

Of course.

Things were going too well. In the course of a couple months, Frogs Gone Fishin' had signed a record deal with a fantastic independent record label, tracked and produced a killer album and bought an RV to go on tour with.

AND WHAT AN RV!
-generator
-stove and fridge and freezer and microwave
-john and shower
-captain's seats
-Vintage 1987 styling
-full wireless internet access...
-CB radio (for awkward trucker interaction)
-sleeping for 6.....


And then... Weeee Slooooooweed Dooooooooooooown. Just about 20 miles outside Lincoln.

All the guys in Frogs know the feeling. You're going 60 in second gear and it sounds like it. Our tranny has failed before. You can probably read some other pissed-off rant about shitty American cars in my archive, two years past since our Suburban, Leslie, shat out on us in New Mexico.

Why doesn't our bus ever break down in Prague or Hong Kong?

Doom sets in. Dread. We pull over in a small Nebraska town and the mechanic at the fortunately placed FORD MEGA MART forecasts more doom (shot tranny) and directs us to the transmission "specialist'' in Lincoln who then informs us we will know at noon tomorrow the fate of our newly purchased palace on wheels.

So here we are. Setting up in the Irish bar in Lincoln gives us more to do than we enjoyed back in Raton, New Mexico when Leslie met her maker.

Will post an update tomorrow. We'll find a way to Omaha one way or the other...