gifts from enola

We've put together what might be the longest studio video ever. It contains a lot of masks and some more footage from the show with Joy Wants Eternity and Wanli:



I don't think that I really need to say that it was an incredible show. Both Wanli and Joy Wants Eternity are great bands in completely different ways and we completely love all of them as dudes and we really dug how it all came together. A big thanks to everyone who came out, hanged hard, and got really sweaty and gross with us. We love you all and can't wait to do it again.

Speaking of, the Andrew WK show in November is now 18+ to get in and 21+ to drink, which hopefully means that everyone who wants to come can get in legally. We really hate playing shows with age restrictions at all, but were doing our best to make this work for everyone. It's going to be our biggest Harrisonburg show yet, and probably this towns most ridiculous one in a while and for some time to come, so make sure to be there. Get up with us for information about tickets or check out: http://www.blameitonthetrain.org/

And we will party hard.

On a completely different note, Temporary Residence will be releasing a split record featuring Thursday and Envy soon. It has already leaked to the interweb. I believe that its both great musically and of great importance because it shows Thursday doing what they really want to do and not what Victory Records wants. Why? Because they're no longer on that label. Because fuck big labels, mass distribution and advertising and a tour bus are not worth the vitality and honesty of that which you pour your soul into.

Thursday, along most notably with Thrice, with whom they released a split back when we were in high school or something, are both carrying the torch for this, the post-screamo generation who is fed up with empty screamed cliches and begs for something more. By eschewing the major label rockstar in favor of the artist who maintains his integrity they have both produced something positive and meaningful for listeners, giving something back to those who have afforded them a life where they can survive by making music.

Or at least that's how I see it.

There are those who care about you by virtue of the fact that you are a human being, that you are conscious, that you ARE. They create what they create so that you may find meaning in it greater than that which they could ever conceive, so that you may move forward, upward, in any direction so long as it feels like progress to you, and they do so lovingly. They create ART.

And there are those who care about you as a member of a target market, a demographic, a statistic, something to sell to. They know what you like and "write" "music" so that you will buy it or pay some absurd amount of money to watch them lie to you live and in person. So that you will pay another absurd amount of money for a shitty t-shirt that you wont even wear in a few years because you will be embarrassed to have ever liked the band. Future generations will remember them as we look back on hair metal of the 80's: as an example of the ridiculous heights of style at a given time, as an example of how stupid people will act all caught up in the movements of the mob mentality that dictates what is "cool."

They will be mocked on VH1 (or whatever channel takes its place) by relevant comedians of the time.

And these ones, they will wonder what the fuck they were thinking as they transition from rehab into a career in washed up celebrity reality television.

You can be more than a potential sale. You can get more out of music, out of movies, out of books, out of everything you perceive, than the television and the radio and mainstream print media will ever give you.

So download music. Rip it. Burn it. Whatever. With the internet as it is the debate has been raging as to whether or not music should be free or not, but it's ultimately an irrelevant argument. Whether it "should" be free or not, it IS, so listen to it. It may be a crime, but there's no such thing as a legal revolution.

The bands that care about you want you to hear their music, even if it means that they don't make any money off of it. If they bitch about downloading, take a second to think about what they really care about.

Find something you love online and support it by spreading the word or by seeing them live in a basement somewhere, buy merch and give them a place to stay, feed them, tell them you believe in what they're doing, hang out with them, anything. Support need not be merely monetary.


Current Reading-

The Problem With Music
Leaves of Grass
Self Reliance

Current Listening-

Refused- The Shape of Punk to Come
The Rise- Reclamation Process
Mr. Bungle- California
Pedro the Lion- Control