The Summer and Final Jaunt Back to Berkeley

What happened after the tour? Well we separated ways for the time being. Ava was back in LA living with her dad and working on her own music and art. Richard hung out for a few days and then went back to Davis for the summer. Steven went back to Isla Vista to write music and move to the Santa Barbara. Me and Ryan went back to live at our Dad's house and enjoy his final summer of being a high schooler. Tim went back to his family to take some community college courses and play lots of Rockband.

Me, Ryan and Tim (as well as Josh Chang who recorded cello on the album) all worked at he Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach. We also climbed a few mountains, watched movies, played Age of Empires and generally enjoyed life.

Steven (Existential Hero) came back down to Orange County to record his new album with me! We knocked it out in 2 or 3 weekends with some crazy all night recording sessions mixed between me working. It's a great album that was finally released in September: http://cllct.com/release/haspotential download it!

During this time Morgan Orion, Jack F.E. and Bunny Zewt Suit stopped by. We had a great show with them in my backyard and we went to the beach with them! We also recorded a song by Morgan called "Mister Miss Her". Its a great song but he never figured out what he was going to do with it.

I finished recording an EP this summer which was alternate takes of Orange County songs and covers of the summers greatest songs: "Will We Ever" and "Chill Out, Griffin" by Nana Grizol and Wabash respectively.

Ryan and I took the EP on tour with us as we drove back up to college...

Santa Barbara: We stayed with Steven and played a show with him at Mel's place. it didnt end up being much of a show but rather a round robin of songs, covers and hookah. Afterwards with hung out with Steven and Layla, tramping around Isla Vista doing crazy things and going to forbidden places. Oh the lives of college students!

LA: We drove back to LA to play the Tribal Cafe with Ava. We played with a typical LA "experimental noise/garage rock" band and 2 punk bands. The punk kids really wanted our music so we gave it to them for very cheap. They were all total glam punks and all of them it seemed were underaged. The guy who owned the cafe was really into recording the sets and video taping them. He interviewed everyone after their sets and interviewed the audience.

San Luis Obispo: So Ava accompanied us back to Steven's where we stayed the night. We then headed up to SLO to play a show at The Clubhouse. First we went to beautiful Morro Bay and climbed rocks. It brought back memories of touring to SLO back in high school with david and my ex-girlfriend (and originall YYD co-founder) Carrie. We headed back to the venue after picking up some groceries. Ava had a rocky set but we killed it! We had Morgan Enos play with us again and it was wonderful. His guitar made up for my guitars failures and the people loved Ryan's horn and Ava's bells. We got extra donations and CD sales after the show because people liked us. This really pissed off the promoter though who hates Morgan and seems to despise music that isnt boring singersongwriter or "true" folk music.. But we got many compliments including someone saying that we were like a tiny Polyphonic Spree! WHEW what a compliment!

We had to find a hotel that night though because Morgan couldn't put us up and neither could anyone from the show. We paid for a motel and waited till we had to drop Ava off at the Greyhound at 2 am. We woke up in the morning and went to Santa Maria.

Santa Maria:
We back tracked to play this show but it was well worth it! We had a hard time finding the venue but we got to play with Steven again and some cool SMDIY kids in a band called Hello My Name is Cirus. People again loved us and bought lots of CDs and stuff! We almost sold out of our Tour EP! We left for a long drive to Berkeley. Ryan was a trooper and did most of the driving which I was really thankful for. We arrived around 2 am.

Davis: Now you might be wondering: why was it only you and Ryan? Where is the rest of the band? Well, Tim was working at his schools welcome week earning some extra cash and Ava had business to take care of at home. Richard was in Davis. Tim rejoined me to go to Davis. Ryan had to stay in Berkeley for CAL Band. Me, Tim and Richard played a short set after barely making it to Davis. We played and people again dug it. No microphones or anything yet people across the busy street still stood to watch us for a bit! We sold almost all the rest of our EPs and met Nadav whose going to have us on his radio show someday. We saw our friends David A Good Pillow and Neil Ruud which was wonderful as usual. We also got some awesome smoothies at the gallery we played in front of!

Berkeley: Technically the last day of tour was the first inaugural show East Bay DIY show at The Carpentry, my house! We played a packed show with some berkeley friends of ours and had a great time. The sets were recorded: http://cllct.com/release/campfirebritbenjaminglasscakeandyouryellowdress82109thecarpentry

Tour over we set up camp for a long semester of school. Ryan and I are at Berkeley, Tim is at San Francisco State, Richard is at UC Davis, and various other people who played with us during tour and on record populate the campus's of Saddleback College, UCI, and NYU.

If you want to download the tour EP we recorded it is up for free here:
http://cllct.com/release/backtoschooltourep


Epilogue:
We have since been here at school. Ryan's studying chem but switching to history. I'm studying business and music and having way too many classes. Ava is withdrawn from Berkeley trying to figure out her major for next semester. Tim is at SFSU and SFCC trying to transfer to Berkeley and we have added new/old band members:

Andrew Davis: Guitar and whatever else we can convince him to try. He goes to Berkeley and is also from Orange County! Huntington Beach to be exact!
Josh Reyman: Bass. Josh also goes to Berkeley and dates a fried of ours, Mandie Russell who I'm producing some songs for this year.
Jake Satola: Drummer. He also played the wicked solo on the end of "(Un)happiest Place on Earth". He is going to be touring with us this winter through the western USA.
Mandie Russell: Flute. There are the facts mentioned above but interstingly we unknowingly went to high school with her but didn't meet her till after she graduated.
Alyson Durrant: Violin hopefully. She goes to Berkeley and went to high school with us.


Currently there are a few things going on:
I'm writing new songs about El Dorado County. No I'm not writing songs with snappy titles like, "James Marshall! Look What You've Done!" or "Skiing the Sierra, How I Broke Your Leg at Heavenly and Never Said Sorry", but instead its going to be a mini drama about a weekend spent in Lake Tahoe with friends and a girl I liked. This fateful weekend I found out she had a boyfriend. Major Bummer. Maybe that is what we'll call the record "Major Bummer in Tahoe" hahah.
No, we're getting personal this time around and we have a few songs together. The first song is called Placerville, it starts our story at the end. The other song is untitled but has a big group singing thing at the beginning and a driving midsection. We also have an instrumental called The Desolation Wilderness we developed with Jake this summer. There are a few other this floating around like "I Just Want to Dance With You" and other ideas but nothing firm.
I'm also working on a covers album and a Christmas album. In fact I am rehearsing with my friend Audrey who is going to sing a version of "Baby It's Cold Outside". Some other songs for christmas will be "Silent Night", "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", "White Christmas", "Oh Come All Ye Faithful", "O Holy Night", and an original song called "Let Us Rejoice and Be Glad".

We're also embarking on a winter tour! If you could help us our with some dates that wouldbe wonderful:

December
26 - Orange County - TBA
27 - Phoenix - Trunkspace w/ Iji and Little Swamp
28 - Tucson - TBA?
29 - Santa Fe/New Mexico - NEEED HELP!!!
30 - Lubbock/West TX - NEED HELP!!
31 - Arlington and Dallas - early show @ Love and Reason, Late show TBA

January
1 - Arkansas or Oklahoma - NEED HELP
2 - Kansas City, MO - JBs House
3 - Denver, CO - The Soulquarium
4 - Salt lake City - TBA w/ Drew Danburry
5 - Boise, ID - NEED HELP
6 - seattle - New Crompton
7 - olympia - TBA w/ Sundance Kids
8 - portland - NEEED HELPPP
9 - arcata, ca - TBA w/ David Jaberi
10 - davis - TBA w/ Neil Ruud
11 - santa cruz - NEED HELP
12 - san luis obispo - TBA w/ Morgan Enos
13 - ssanta maria - Cafe Monet w/ Hello My Name Is Circus
14 - santa barbara - Biko Garage w/ NANA GRIZOL, Mount Righteous
15 - day off
16 - day off
17 - Berkeley - The Carpentry