Believe The Hype

I was lucky enough to see it on IMAX this weekend. Luckier than these folks.

AudioSurfing With Snowden

I just stumbled across this on YouTube. Funny.



AudioSurf is a music-adapting puzzle racer where you use your own music to create your own experience. The shape, the speed, and the mood of each ride is determined by the song you choose.

The Walkmen | You & Me

For the past week or so I've been listening to the new Walkmen album that recently leaked on repeat. It's one of the best records to come out this year, in my opinion. They seem to have taken all the elements I love about the band and magnified them with brilliant studio production and great songwriting. I've always loved the reverb drenched guitar tones they get and on this record the guitars really stand out. Hamilton Leithauser's vocal delivery is top notch as well and gives the songs an emotional urgency that most vocalists lack. All around this record is just a breath of fresh air in the current indie music landscape.

Speaking of which, this current trend of people playing late 80's early 90's hardcore/noise rock and somehow being considered 'fresh' or 'relevant' is really starting to wear thin. Loud distorted guitar riffs and screaming unintelligible lyrics into a microphone while flailing about onstage just isn't cutting it for me. I will admit that I like the No Age record and what they're doing, but some of the other bands clumped into that scene just seem like a joke, or some sort of passing fad. There's only so far you can grow musically in that vein. The Walkmen, on the other hand, are writing timeless songs that seem to be imprinted with a stamp of authenticity that will last far past the short shelf life of whatever trend or fad is considered cool or hip at the moment. Ok, sorry for ranting. Bottom line, this new Walkmen record is a much welcomed return to form and definitely worth checking out.

MP3: The Walkmen - In The New Year

MP3: The Walkmen - On The Water

Something To Do

Thanks Jeff Bridges

Corndogs + SwitchBurn Videos

I'm pretty sure all of Atlanta knows the annual Corndogorama festival is this weekend at Lenny's. If for some reason you're local and have never been, you're missing out on quite a spectacle. We're scheduled to play around 9:45pm on Saturday and close out the outdoor stage. Hopefully the rain will hold off. Check out the full schedule HERE.

In other Snowden news, the wonderful folks at switchburn.com have posted some videos of us performing at Stubb's BBQ in Austin last month. If you've never checked out this website you really should. They film bands performing at various venues around Austin and archive them on their site. What's cool is that they post all the videos in a multi-camera angle format and the quality is great. They already have quite an extensive archive of great bands including Black Lips, Dark Meat, Dead Confederate, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, The Black Angels and many many more. Definitely worth checking out. I was sorta hoping they would feature a couple of our newer songs so people could get a taste of the new stuff, but they went with the better known cuts from Anti-Anti. No complaints here though. The vids are cool and we're happy they took the time to film us and post it. Click on the song names to watch the videos.

BLACK EYES | BETWEEN THE RENT AND ME | LIKE BULLETS | ANTI-ANTI

Snowden @ AthFest This Friday (40 Watt)

Images From The Tour

We've been back for a little over a week now. After bouncing all over the country for a few weeks everything just seems like a big blurry fading memory once you get back home and settle back into your daily routine. Here are a bunch of random photos I took throughout the tour. I have some video footage too. I'll get around to editing some of that stuff one day soon. I've mentioned it before but I'll say it again... Colour Revolt are an amazing band. Watching them play every night never got old. If you're in Atlanta they're playing a show here this Thursday (6/12) at Vinyl with Gringo Star. I highly recommend checking them out. Here's a mp3 of what became my favorite song to watch them play each night. There's a lyric towards the end that floors me every time I hear it...

"cause brother you are my weakness

i'll listen and learn from your kindness
your wisdom is very thoughtless
but your window is worth looking out from"

MP3: Colour Revolt - Moses of the South

Varsity Theater. Minneapolis, MN.

A reflection of our van.

My daily view from the van.

Jordan and I enjoy sushi in Toronto.

Chandler & Jordan wait for a storm after a show in Oklahoma City.

It's close, according to Advantage Doppler 3D.

Still waiting.

Chandler controls the Global Positioning System.

In Dallas we stop at the appropriately named Dallas Lake.

Surprisingly, it wasn't until Austin that Jordan suffered a real sunburn.

Corinne reads a book recommended by Jimmy from Colour Revolt.

Chandler learns Sammy Davis Jr. was a member of the Church of Satan.

Jordan is quite strange.

Sean Kirkpatrick. This kind man let me use his amplifier after mine decided to die.

Our favorite place to play in Austin. They make sure we eat well.

A late night (veggie) dog in Austin.

Shane MacGowan napping backstage.

Represent.

Loading out/in

Len & Patrick soundchecking in Houston.

Andrew (aka Petey). Merch guy (aka drinking buddy).

Elvis.

Backstage in New Orleans. Final show of the tour.

Wine Tasting + Water Falls in Finger Lakes

On our way to a show in Buffalo Jordan made a split second decision to pull off the interstate and drive towards an area in the upstate New York countryside known as Finger Lakes. It's an area with a bunch of lakes, hills, mountains, waterfalls and a surprisingly large number of wineries scattered throughout as well. We had some time to kill and decided to stop off at a winery to sample some of the goods and then stop by a nearby waterfall for a bit before we returned to our normal tour route.

This seemed like a reasonable price.

Cobblestone Farm Winery

Wine snobs... "hmm, that one's very earthy"

We talked this guy into taking us in the back room with all the barrels and concocting our own personalized bottle of wine in exchange for a bunch of Snowden merch.

We watch closely to make sure his measurements are correct.

Done. Decorated with a beautiful Snowden sticker. One of a kind.

We drive a few miles down to one of the falls.

The beauty. The grandeur.

Back to the van. Jordan leads us. Blindly.

Update From The Road

So, finding time to blog while on tour isn't as easy as I thought it would be. We've pretty much been in constant motion from the get go. Right now I'm in a cafe in Albany, NY. We have an off day and stopped off here on our way to Buffalo. The tour has been going really well. Colour Revolt is an amazing band live and really nice people to hang around with before the shows. I highly recommend anyone reading this to check them out if they ever come through your town.

We just got done spending a few days hanging around New York. Our show at Mercury Lounge on Thursday night was sold out to the point that the fire marshal showed up and almost shut the whole thing down before we got to play. They stopped letting people in at one point, even people who had already purchased tickets or friends of ours that were on the list. Eventually they let some more people in before we played but I'm not sure how they're sorting out the people who were denied entry. Contact Mercury Lounge if you're one of those people. Sorry about that. Apparently that was the first time the fire marshal ever showed up to a show at that venue before. Read more about it here.

Here are some random pics...

Touring + Corndogorama

I'm currently scrambling to get packed and ready. We leave tomorrow for our tour with Colour Revolt. I think both bands together on the same bill should make for some great shows. We'll be testing out new songs and also have a new t-shirt/design we'll be selling at shows, along with some cds, vinyl copies of Anti-Anti, free stickers, etc. I plan on taking lots of pics/vids and blogging throughout the tour, so keep checking back.

We also just added our show at Corndogorama here in Atlanta on June 28th at Lenny's. It's another great year of local music and corndog related festivities. We missed out last year because of a flight nightmare trying to get out of London. Luckily we'll be in town and prepared this time. Hope to see some of you out at the shows...

May 12 - Chapel Hill, NC @ Local 506 (w/ Colour Revolt)
May 13 - Washington, DC @ Rock and Roll Hotel (w/ Colour Revolt)
May 14 - Philadelphia, PA @ Northstar (w/ Colour Revolt)
May 15 - New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge (w/ Colour Revolt)
May 16 - Hoboken, NJ @ Maxwell's (w/ Colour Revolt)
May 17 - Northampton, MA @ Pearl Street (w/ Colour Revolt)
May 18 - Allston, MA @ Great Scott (w/ Colour Revolt)
May 20 - Buffalo, NY @ Mohawk Place (w/ Colour Revolt)
May 21 - Toronto, ON @ Lee's Place (w/ Colour Revolt)
May 22 - Akron, OH @ Musica (w/ Colour Revolt)
May 23 - Chicago, IL @ Subterranean (w/ Colour Revolt)
May 24 - Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity (w/ Colour Revolt)
May 25 - Lawrence, KS @ Jackpot Saloon (w/ Colour Revolt)
May 26 - Oklahoma City, OK @ The Conservatory (w/ Colour Revolt)
May 28 - Dallas, TX @ House of Blues [Cambridge Room] (w/ Colour Revolt)
May 29 - Austin, TX @ Stubb's (w/ Colour Revolt)
May 30 - Houston, TX @ Walter's on Washington (w/ Colour Revolt)
May 31 - New Orleans, LA @ One Eyed Jacks (w/ Colour Revolt)
June 20 - Athens, GA @ 40 Watt [AthFest] (w/ Twin Tigers, Iron Hero, Pegasuses-XL)
June 28 - Atlanta, GA @ Lenny's [Corndogorama] (w/ tons of cool local bands)

Snowden @ AthFest June 20th

It's been quite some time since we've played a show in Athens. I'm not sure why exactly, but we are pleased to announce that we'll be playing there June 20th during AthFest. Our show will be at the 40 Watt during the evening festivities on Friday June 20. Immediately after Dark Meat finishes their headlining set on the main outdoor stage the party will shift over to the 40 Watt where we'll be playing with Twin Tigers, Iron Hero and Pegasuses-XL. I'm really looking forward to this show. I love Athens and can't wait to hang out and enjoy some of the other bands. Come out if you're in the area.