backposting

Weird: this might be ‘secretly’ turning into a Yip Yip tour. We have had pizza three times in three days, and three of these pizza-fueled days have been on tour. If this trend continues, I will have to start taking pictures of the slices. You’d be amazed what passes as pizza. Incidentally, last night during an impromptu “interview” I was asked to fill in this blank: “Pizza just isn’t pizza without _________.” I answered: CRUST.

We are driving out of Pittsburgh now. I have been meaning to update this for two days, but, sadly, have been having too much fun to do any of that. The process of writing on tour is funny= I always think there will be time In The Van (ITV). Much can be accomplished ITV, for instance, to my left we have Tom, who is constructing a graph of some kind. He and I are both attempting to keep up with the school side of things whilst touring, so a lot of schoolin’ happens ITV. It is also a good place to read, make sandwiches, listen to tunes, stare outside, and sleep. Right now Dustin is driving straight into the morning sun (7:45 am) with a windshield covered in dead bug smash stuff. Guts, right? Its nasty. Ohh. Scary. The driver is pissed. Lets talk about something else, shall we?

Last night’s show was fun, yet awkward as many of Manny’s shows seem to be according to our own experience and the combined, conversed about experiences of people at Liz’s & Dean’s house. The band slated to play first were already all set up when we got there, and they proceeded to rock really hard at the word GO from Manny. They were called Shallow Palace from South Carolina. “Nick Painter” was next (two dudes). They played covers & then left. Next was the kid Dean, who played one of those screamingly sweet electric guitar and drum and loop pedal sets that we hear so much about these days. He played violently intense and surprisingly well organized compositions, which were difficult to discern any lyrics from. Probably something about bleeding internally? I really liked his seemingly-destroyed keyboard with high frequency settings that sounded much like a swarm of electronic bees caught in a shitty amp that was plugged in for the first time in a decade. At one point the pizza was acquired, and duly consumed. I had one square piece, which was like a dough pillow with a sauce & cheese hat. I met a lady from Liberia at the bar next door where I bought a six-pack of Yuengling (sp?) for $8. We set up on the floor, and once getting the kids warmed up, had a good dancing time and got really hot and out of breath. The air is hard to breathe in Pittsburgh, so be careful if you are a singer. You might want to lay off the smokes for a week before showing up. Let me see if I can remember the set:

Hum Jam
Berry Can
Ezra Pound
Jap Dad
Shark Suit
Pamphleteer/Sagansong?
--------------(new)
The Sun
Trapezeus

We stayed over with the wonderful friend family of Dean and had a pretty neat perspective on the ‘Burgh, from the roof of the house. I was told about the G20 protests by people who were actually there, and could see the “Cathedral of Learning”, which is a huge tower which contains part of a university. It was far off, but looked huge. Some of the kids on the roof said they had been teargassed and chased by the police. One said that he didn’t protest the first night, but did the second because the huge police force and the previous night’s brutality seemed like an immediate reason to take to the streets.