This is the shit that we're supposed to do when we have some spare time

Today we have three days off in Rotorua, which will be spent by half of us at the lovely house of Covell, half of us at the auntie of Hampton, and Jeremy and Madi incommunicado in Napier with another Jeremy relative. A sweet sweet glorious sleep-in at the Covell house was followed by a magnificently cooked breakfast of bacon, eggs, toast, hashbrowns, and tomato (made by Jess), followed by cigarretes (for all the lame people who smoke) in the sun, and then a coffee and beers at Essence (you should totally go there-Croucher beer kicks ass) in Ngongataha. Dr Suess has done some fine work in creating "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" and "Hortron Hears a Who" which we watched on DVD in the original cartoon format, followed by some Cirque Du Soleil, which blew all of our minds. Several drinks and a dinner fit for kings later, we played 'Trouble' (surely you remember that game from your days of youth) although in addition to the usual rules there were several drinking rules added. All in all Bugs was 1st, Jess was 2nd, Paul was 3rd, and Ben was 4th, but teamwork was the winner at the end of the day as everyone got conveniently drunk.
Coincidentally Hamptons 1 and 2, Vince, and Oscar went busking, made some money, and probably did exactly the same thing (probably minus the trouble).





So! this is a brief round up of what's been happening..




Paekakariki: Jackie and Jay came and rocked out the gig with us alongside Daile(?) she was awesome, put 6 of us up for the night on the floor of her house, the smallest house in Paekak, the gig was fuckin' awesome! Followed by some casual passes.



Wellington: A renegade gig by Rackets outside Cosmic Corner was disliked by the French dude next door.

Mighty Mighty is one of the most fun places to play, fantastic hospitality, it was almost like a flashback to the great times we had on the West coast back in the South Island (shit that seems like a long time ago!) The gig was fucking sweet

Anthony Lander, what a guy, he partied with us, came to the gig, let us stay at his pad, plays in a few awesome bands (The Tweeks, The Blue Onesies, Fulangchangandi), and was just generally awesome at accommodating us, and is an all round good dude. Thanks man!


Palmerston North: The Royal Hotel; what a place! It's set up for some epic gigs, which would have been equally as epic if anyone had come to the gig. Soss, was so helpful, and partied with us until the early hours of the morning in Dil's apartment. They have some good people involved with the game there. We were feeling the pinch from the $61 worth of parking tickets we achieved in Wellington, so a quick game of paper/scissors/rock sorted out who was to wake up in the morning and put money in the meter. Here a video of the grand championship final.



Gisborne: The North Island is looking promising so far (as far as pubs and characters go), there is an actual plane going through the side of Smash Palace, if that doesn't impress you then stop watching TV so much and be a real person. We met up with my cousin Aaron at the gig, and he showed us some awesome hospitality, even though we were being looked after and accommodated by the good folks at The Lolly Stockman Hotel. A short stopover at Wairoa (we're totally playing there next tour) and we were on our way.

Napier: The shops were all shut by the time we arrived so printing flyers was not viable, however we managed to burn some more copies of the split EP, and some cricket was had. Cabana was another awesome venue, well setup and poised on the edge of something awesome about to happen… Something awesome did happen that night, the best performances so far by all the bands, sadly only witnessed by a small amount of punters. 




The next day was full of rain, this is not a good thing because our van and trailer both suffer from leaks, and due to the nature of our profession, our equipment doesn't enjoy getting wet. Hopefully none of the gear that was left in the trailer during this nature spasm was injured, but we probably won't find out until next time we try and use it, which is Raglan on Wednesday. The rain Had subsided by the time we reached Tarawera and we stopped off at the Tarawera Tavern for some (fucking expensive) ice-creams, and cricket. The test match of Paul, Oscar, and myself, versus Ben, Callum, and Vince, with Logan as the super sub was tied at two all, and so had to be decided by a good old fashioned bowl-off (commentated by Logan)

Sorry, we'll get the rest of the vids up soon as.
Bugs

we're in Palmerston North at the moment, arrived a few hours ago..set up our stuff an now bugs' an i are at some internet cafe.i keep stearing into nothingness.
Wellington was great.  we crashed at Anthony landers place and it was wonderful
gotta go.
ttyl bff <3

Dunedin, Lyttleton, Timaru, Picton, and The Interislander

Here's some videos from the Cook

Chicks Hotel, Thursday 11 November. Somehow everyone managed to come back to life from the night before. Thanks to everyone who came out, especially those who came two nights in a row. Thanks Hector for having us. Another great night. Ben lost his jacket (and wallet) at Chicks, if anyone has seen it

Lyttleton was awesome. El Santo is somewhere that everyone should go to at some point in time. It was a very much like an alternate realm of sing star, but for some strange reason I had a great time. The world doesn't really seem to be a real place and the fumes in the back seat of the van almost dissolved Paul. We arrived at 8.05pm and were set up and ready by 9:15, I think that's a record so far. Here's a video of Rackets. 

Timaru sucked, apart from my whanau, they're still rocking strong.

uh off to Picton tomorrow it's going to be a mammoth drive but the vans where we lay our eggs and then it gives birth to to eight randy gentleman, so we owe it. 

Paul

mathew ridge, clarke gayford, suzanne paul, cocksy, the singer from autozamm, john key, paul holmes, the feelers(james reid), midnight youth, frankie stevens, erin simpson, paul reid from rubicon, all the guys from 48 may, goodnight nurse. 

Logan

Shit.

It's three fifteen am and we're supposed to be employed tomorrow. Picton is next on the bill and it's an good few minutes away from Timaru...

A new van-packing record was achieved today, 16 minutes to load the entire van and trailer with all the gear and all the people. If you've seen how much shit we have then you should be impressed. After a cooked breakfast made Malcolm Miller style, and coffees (thanks!) we departed for Lyttleton to pick up the microphone we left behind on Friday. Picton is a long drive. We made it right on 8pm, just in time to not play. The gig had been double booked, and because of our late arrival, the decision was made to have the night off and let the other dude bask in the limelight. Our night consisted of a little cricket on the waterfront (if the ball goes in the water you get minus 4 runs) until it became too dark to see, which has become a recurring factor on this tour, followed by chess, and an introduction to Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job in Peters bach. Oscar and I awoke to a beautiful view, looking out down the harbour at the boats and shit. Great stuff. 

We made on time to the ferry check in only to find out that the date on the ticket was for Saturday. Smooth-talker Logan had the mission sussed within minutes and everything was gravy again, there was even another band supposed to be playing so we don't have to do anything. The band turned out to be the one-man ska band from last night in Picton, so Paul is going to borrow his acoustic and do a set as well. I'll try video it or something.

No dice on the video but here's a new song paul made in the van today.
Bugs

The Captain Cook

Wow that got out of hand pretty quickly. Good morning. I don't know what happened to the rest of the crew, last time I saw them they were all upright though. Thanks everyone who came out to the gig. Thundercub are awesome. Great now it's raining. Wow it's raining a whole lot. The sky looked like this on my way home this morning (nice photo Louis). Wow thunder! This is getting epic... So Iain Sweetman is the man. He made the gig sound excellent. The Porpoise was massive with a couple of casual subs cranking. My toe didn't get blood everywhere, and Rackets kicked ass like usual. I remembered finding the special effects section on my ipod about a week ago, so I made a video just before it died for the evening.
Bugs.

300 + Tour photos.

Good Morning, if you're not familiar with the world of Facebook, then ive linked the photos here..

It took forever to get these guys up last night but anyway, this is sort of what its been like.
 First Leg of the Tour # 1

First Leg of the Tour # 2

we're playing Dunedin tonight. looking forward to it.

Chicks tomorrow, then we're back on the road for another month or so. all this sleep in Dunedin and i swear im more tired now then i was when i arrived.

cya tonight

Dunedin

yes! after leaving Tikaka at a generous 2pm we arrived in Dunedin at a sleepy 4am.
I've taken all the photos and videos off my phone an will upload them tonight hopefully..could've/shoud've done it last night but i accidentally got drunk whilst catching up with a few hombres.
I've got another Dongle now so il be able to upload photos on the road again.

..dongle..

We have our gig on Wednesday night at The Cook, so i've been working on these special "tickets" (we'll call em) that allow people into both gigs + a Split Tour E.P for $15.
that's half price of everything if you do the math. if you dont do the math then thats fine.. but it's still 1/2 price..
there are only 30 tickets that have been made, so you'll have to be in quick to get the special deal.

otherwise entry on Wednesday night is $10 and like wise for the Chicks Hotel gig on Thursday night.

It's nice being back in Dunedin but i almost seem to miss things like packing the gear up whilst laughing about the night before ..or getting a coffee and forgetting to ask for sugar then dreading the durry because it'll only make the sugarless coffee worse.. just that sorta early morning haziness shit that you get used to. It's only the 2nd day back Ben keep it together. i guess we've been floating around city's so much lately, being back in Dunedin hasn't sunk in. wonder how we'll feel at the end of all this? HARDER BETTER FASTER STRONGER aye kanye. yea keep up all that good work bro.
this blog just got real Dear Diary.. il pull it back.. holdup

...
we're back in buisness with a cricket bat now though and this means we can play cricket on the road again. how exciting is that?

this exciting

this exciting

and this exciting

Im pretty much done here. Alizarin were supposed to have a practice today but everyone's busy doing stuff. Bugs' is smackin the back out of a stack of posters, Logans probably slaying some dragons, I've got to print T-shirts today, upload stacks of photos an suss out the drum kit so it doesn't break.
Paul is Paul, when hes not writing songs he's probably writing songs

we're planing on having two different set lists for each gig so you're not paying to see the same show twice.



THIS IS OSCAR DOING A ONE TAKE VIDEO OF GREY SKIES AT THE MONKEY WIZARD BREWERY IN RIWAKA.



THANKS

i had something awesome for breakfast today

This is the view i woke up to this morning after a pretty eventful after party from the Mapua gig the night before. we had games of pool, spas, tequila and lemonade amongst other things. The Tap in Mapua is a wonderful venue, the young locals are a bit crazy but that's always a treat.. Boysencider on tap as well which is bang on for a dude who cant seem to drink beer. The pizza's at the Tap are wicked as well. thanks to Andy for putting us up at his house. brohammer has a pool table as well. living the dream


The night before in Nelson was pretty sweet, we played the Phat Club. I've only heard about the Phat Club an thought it was all about the D&B (that Phat festival?) but it turns out to be a sweet venue which gives off a "Dunedin Venue" vibe. Paul thinks so as well.. im not making this up. The place is sweet though with an awesome heated outside smoking area.
during the night Oscar and Vinnie were in the van checking something out when they bumped into a couple of Americans who are in NZ for the next month or so.. they seemed to be keen on the idea of following the band around for a show, couple of shows? im not really sure. they've each given me two different names. hopefully they stick around for a bit longer it's certainly a nice change from seeing the same 7 other dudes for the past couple of weeks.

we're playing The Mussell Inn tonight, real keen on the idea. i remember my folks taking me when i was 7 or so. i hear we get to stay in a log cabin as well. fun

we hope to leave for Dunedin on Monday. or Sunday. isn't today Saturday?

come to the gig

candid vids

Hawea Photos

Hawea. good times

                                           

photos taken by Alex Lovell Smith. nice one bro

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thanks guys!

my mouth tastes like of whiskey but i wasnt drinking whiskey

hey andy
it's been ages since Greymouth.. that gig was sweet, we got hooked up with really really good food. the chef was/is from Tibet an he makes dumplings. They have 5$ big bots at the bar which we were greeted with apon arrival. Rackets made the old folk shake their money maker, they loved it but theres always something weird about watching old folk grind up against each other. that shits mental.
 
after getting 16 double cheeseburgers from Mc D's we travelled back to Barrytown for acom. the Barrytown Bar looked like it was going off so the rest of the guys went in there to check it out while i went an tried to find a place to stay in the hall..i open the door an the place was a mess. The kids "Sports day" thing actually turned out to be a Halloween party, which threw my shit into a spin. broken polystyrine (sp?) gravestones an shit was everywhere. freaked me out so i got outta there an went back to the pub to tell the guys about it.
we all went down an had a look an it was alll good, i guess thats just kids going awol on soft drinks.

uhmm.. Granity? i need to consult the flyer. you'd be suprised how often we consult the flyer just to figure out what day it is an shit.
Granity was great, the Lyric theatre is a massive hall where the locals go to watch blockbuster films on the big screen. the set up was awesome, big enough stage to just wheel stuff in an set stuff up. the gig itself was amazing, i think 29? people came out.. enough to make a party. we had a gig fall through in Karamea.sad stuff. but yeah, the Granity Council or some shit wernt too keen on letting us crash at the Lyric theatre for more then one night..fair enough. this is where Vorn and Tania come in.

 
Vorn had seen Alizarin Lizard play last time we came to Granity an he tried getting us to go up to see this "Millerton radio station" that he runs with the town folk of Millerton.
this is Millerton            this is a picture of Millerton
he told us that we could just come up to his an crash for a few days, maybe even put on a gig for the locals at the hall that they have up there.
We packed up out an got outta the Lyric an went to find Vorns house. Millerton is sort of like a ghost town, theres only a handfull of locals who live there. We found Vorns house an he took us down to see his radio station, we played an extreamly baked indoor cricket in the hall. Millerton's soo cool man. my battery ran out on the phone so i couldnt get many pics.
9 of us pack into Vorns car an we drive back to his house, back of the car was bottoming out over every bump in the gravel road. fucking hilarious
Vorn put us up for the night an got us wasted. it was awesome, left the cricket bat in his car though..shit sucks, we're down to using a plank of wood which Oscar showed up with one day.

we drove through to Motueka that evening trying to figure out where we were gonna stay for the night an just by chance met up with Logan an Callums friend Doug, he put us up at his pad. i think we watched Iron Man 2? whats with that shit? 

the next day we played the Monkey Wizard Brewery. which was awesome, we showed up around 1 an we were playing by 3. because they dont have a license to serve alch or get people drunk (they can only do tastings) we had to keep drinking on the D low, i was getting knocked around by the cider..7 percent cider. real good too..we played to 3 school children on bikes, 2 tourists and a mum with 3 little kids. it was super awesome. Oscar took a great 1 take video of Grey Skies which i cant wait to put up. he nailed it man.
everything went well, we ended up taking four or five 2 litre bottles of beer/cider. good shit.

running outta things to do we went to the Hot Mamas Quiz night, bumped into a guy called Sporatics. he also kindly put us up for the night at his house. dude broke his shoulder an is crashing at his folks because they have skytv. haha.
he's a dj up in these parts, not sure if any of you know who he is. nice guy though, you have to remember when someone puts us up for the night thats putting up 8 people. who probably really fuckn reak. ive given up noticing

great, good shit. im supprised ive gotten this far, im starting to sober up so i should smack the back outta this end part real quick

played Hot Mama's last night, the hospitality is really amazing there.try the mushroom/fungi pizza it'll blow your shit
the gig was sweet, dudes bought two 24 packs an put them behind the bar, i had a goon put behind the bar it was all gravey.
everyones enjoyed themselfs. the bands are getting tight now, its becoming second nature which i thought would happen.
but years.. make sure you come to the Dunedin show, it's gonna be awesome

the A.A show at Records Records has been cancelled. they closed down or something while we were away. but The Cook gig will be sweet. Chicks Hotel will be awesome too
we've locked in The Something Quartet to open for us at Chicks. super excited about that.
i think we're gonna cut a deal, or sort something out

Entry to The Cook gig and Chicks plus a split Rackets Alizarin Lizard cd for $15

something like that
anyway this shit has taken ages and im starting to sober up. excuse the spelling mistakes.

We're playing Phat Club in Nelson tonight
Mapua tomorrow and The Mussle Inn on Saturday. heading back to Dunedin after that .come to the Cook and Chicks. it'll be epic

gotta go pack down some gear now at Hot Mamas

cool.
ben