Portland

Day 1) Record shopping; went to see Death Songs (aka, The Shaky Hands, the band that realeased my favourite LP of 2007) at Doug Fir

Day 2) Record shopiing; went to see Colin Meloy from The Decemberists play a tiny instore performance to about 100 people.

Day 3) Record shopping; went to see British Sea Power at Doug Fir. Amazing.

The most relaxed and musically orientated place I've ever been to. The perfect city.

Drunk lots, spent lots: very tired.

Now I'm in Seattle. I haven't really seen any of Seattle, despite being here 24 hours. Got in about 4pm Tuesday, was totally fucked from BSP the night before so hit the hay. Woke up this morning, went to the pub to watch the terrible West Ham game. Might go and see Tilly and Wall tonight, although I've got a feeling it will be terrible. Leave tommorow. I'm so tired and exhausted from this two month pub-crawl (sorry, "travelling") and now can't wait to get home.

In case anyone is still reading this, I'll be in Chinnor on Saturday 8th for bevvies, and then Leicester on Satuday 15th, for soft drinks. See you then. And thanks.

San Fran

Wowwee, what a hilly city we've got here. You can walk about a mile, but with all the bloody hills it feels like you've walked ten. It's tiring, but the views from the top are incredible. My first day here I went to Golden Gate Bridge. It's pretty cool, for a bridge. Day two saw us embark on a trip to Alcatraz. That was one of the best 'tourist' things I've seen in the 'States. The tour is amazing, and the place is eerie as fuck.

Yesterday we went on a right old walk to scope out the house used in Mrs Doubtfire. We found it. It was awesome. Went to Lombard Street which is this wicked mental crooked road. The evening was 'Killer Pool' night, including free beer. Rude not too.

Which leaves today: a big picnic in the Golden Gate park then went to see The Walkmen tonight. They were really good. I wasn't expecting alot and I was pleasently suprised.

Tomorrow I'm off to see The 'next big thing' Dodos, then I've got to fuck off to Portland on Friday. Can't wait to go there now.
 

L.A

Yarda Yarda; too big, too many upper class jeep driving tossers, too many cars, too many tourists, too plastic. Ecsetera. Ecsetera. You've heard it all before.

Plus points: Went to see The Hives. They were fun. Then went to an incredible show at the El Rey Theatre: Liars supported by No Age. No Age were amazing, two piece punk, the new stuff was cool, alot more easy-on-the-ear than 'Weirdo Rippers'. Then Liars absolutely ripped it apart. Probably one of the best shows I've ever seen. And that's saying something. Amazing.

Santa Monica beach was alright, apart from the rain. A thousand times better than Hollywood and Downtown. Walked down to Venice Beach, which was just full of bums. How anyone can say that's 'cool' or 'crazy' is beyond me. There was nothing interesting or different about it. It was just a road full of scummers, either painting shit art or playing shit guitar.

After the Liars show on Friday night I had a 7am start for the West Ham match. Appaulling game (the Guinness at such a ridicolous hour didn't help), but at least we got a result.

Yesterday I got a bus to San Fransisco. Gonna go and have a walk around today, then tomorrow go check out some record stores. I've booked tickets to see The Walkmen on Wednesday, then the Dodos on Thursday. This Friday I fly to Portland. Then the following Friday I land in the UK, after watching British Sea Power in Seattle. Jake, Sam, Cou etc, I expect some kind of welcome home party on the Saturday night ;) Take it easy kids.

San Diego

It seems every new city I visit I start to think "This is my favourite city". First New York, then Austin, then San Diego. SD (to the locals) is totally amazing. On the east side you have the 'suits' side. Loads of bars and clubs, pretty expensive but bloody lively. Then a short bus ride away on the east side, you have the 'stoners'. The beach, bohemian vibe. Lots of guitars, spliffs and surfboards. Whether you wanna party all night on the WKDs or kick back with a bifta, San Diego has both bases covered, with a massive fuck off airport in the middle.

So after remembering my flight (this time) to San Diego, I landed on Friday night, went for a couple of beers then zonked out. Something about flying really takes it out of me. Either that or I'm just lame. On Saturday I ventured around, scoping out the city. I walked from my hostel in Downtown east side, all the way around the harbour, up and over the hills and eventually got to the seaside. Bare, bare walks. On Sunday I did the sensible think of getting the bus to the beach. Fuck walking again. The beach was pretty busy, although it was to cold to go for a paddle.

The following day I wondered around most of the east side, checked out a couple of (shitty) record stores and checked out Balboa Park; a huge park with Musuems, trees and all the usual stuff you'd associate with parks (dogs and dog shit). The Casbah (SD's finest music venue) was my home for the evening. There was a cool band opening, kinda mathy-meets-Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I chatted to the guitarist after and got free beer tokens. Result. The main band were called Chow Nasty. They couldn't have been any more like the Rapture. In fact, if The Rapture had decided to turn up and play a set after, I think you'd struggle to differentiate between the two. They were fun. They gave out instruments and ran around the venue. 'Crazy'.

NOW, I'm in LA. Went to see The Hives last night. They were really good, but played too much new stuff and not enough punky-stuff-from-back-in-the-day. Going to Santa Monica to stay by the beach tommorow. Got two nights there, with Liars playing on Friday. The West Ham game is being shown at a local English Pub at 7am. I will, of course, have a pint in hand. Speak to me on Facebook or some shit. I wanna know what people are up to.

Austin

So tonight is my last night in Austin. It’s such a fucking cool city. On Sunday we went to see of the sweetest bands in the States right now; Dead Meadow and Black Mountain. They play Led Zepy, stoner rock. It was absolutely superb, best show I’ve seen for some time. Helped that the beers were $1, mind.

Austin has the beauty of being one of those ‘not-to-big/not-to-small’ towns, similar to Oxford. It’s also so laid back; everyone smoking up, everyone knocking back a bevvie. The negative is the shit-load of hobos that populate the streets, begging for money. I think most of them had probably come here back in the day, thought “this is cool as fuck, I'm gonna living here”, then struggled to make any money with their art/music.

The river that runs through the town is also pretty sweet. Today I walked for miles up the river (they call it a ‘lake’ though, which is kinda confusing) then went to The Best Record Store In The World, Waterloo Records. It’s huge, and today they had a bland singer-songwriter playing poor mans Jack Johnson rip offs. I would have left (it really was shitty) but then I turn round and they are cracking open a keg and giving it to everyone for free! Result.

I think Lost is on in a minute.

With tonight being my last night, I’m gonna get on the bevies tonight with some of the friends of the guy I’m staying with. He’s called Jeff, and is a friend of this New Zealand guy I had the displeasure (jokes) of hanging out with in Chicago & New York. Kinda random linkage but I guess this is what traveling (that term is so gay) is all about.

I think I might apply for South By South West tickets. After being in this town for a few days and seeing the venues that will house bands, I think it’s too good to miss.

Flying to San Diego tomorrow.

Baltimore/Philadelphia

So the past week was spent rekindling my student youth. Goucher (a short train ride from Baltimore) was really cool. We polished off some keg beer, drunk horrible tequila and went on some comedy semi-Mardi Gras parade through the campus.

On the Tuesday I checked out what Baltimore had to offer. It is kinda nice around the harbour. Lots of boats, naturally. The area 'Fells Point' was particularly noteworthy, with lovely cobbled streets, nice pubs and a swicked record store.

Then came Thursday. Oh the dread Thursday. My first and last night in Philadelphia, and a chance to catch up with Si over a few beers (this would probably be our last night together, to add to the 'recipe for destruction'). Throw a couple of beers in there, plus two Frenchmen with an appetite for bevvie, and it was always going to end up a little worse for where. Oh yeah, and I had a plane booked for 8.30 the following morning. Like a total twat, I lost all knowledge of time, stayed out till gone 2 and consequently missed my flight on Friday morning.

After a couple of expletives, I packed my bags and went down to the bus station. Bus to Austin, Texas = 1 day 17 hours. As it happens, it was alright. We went through Nashville, Memphis and Dallas, so I got to see some of the country. Who am I kidding, it was hell. We stopped every hour and it was cramped as fuck.

But, who cares, I here in Austin now, over looking the lake, getting ready for the Dead Meadow w/ Black Mountain gig tonight. I've got my plane booked to San Diego on Friday (which I WILL catch). Until then I think I'm gonna do lots of walking in the days, then go watch bands at night. Hope people are reading this shit, and enjoying it. If anyone wants to go to Europe in March, holla at me. Good times.

New York

So New York now has a large red tick next to it. It's a fantastic city, similar to London (in that most the people are businessmen and walk around alone with their ipods in) with humungous buildings and everyone scurrying around in a hyperactive manner. We saw all the tourist shit. The Statue of Liberty was a pile of crap. You go through two security checks and then you can't even get to the top. And it was raining. But I guess it's one of those things that 'has to be done'.

Chinatown is worth a laugh, if knock off gear is your thing. Times Square was mint at night. Central Park is the dog bollocks; I could have spent 5 days just wondering around there. There was some shitty 'Hilary' bullshit going on a Union Square when we dragged ourselves out the massive Virgin Megastore. We, naturally, try to wind up as many people as possible with pro-socialist loud talking.

The last night on the tiles was awesome. We went down to East Grenwich Village, hit a few bars and some pints. Then ended up in Queens at 5am after getting on the wrong Subway. Good job it wasn't da Bronx.

You'll be glad to hear that despite me being thousands of miles away from Upton Park, I've managed to catch both games whilst here. There is a great pub called 'Nevada Smiths', which puts on 4 Premiership games when ever they are being played. The Liverpool game was quality; there was about 20 Irons in there. The Wigan game was shown 6 hours after the final whistle, so I managed to avoid the score so I could watch it 'live'. I wish I hadn't bothered.

So New York was a blast. The hostel was cool, the sites were cool, and the drinking was cool. Last night I went to Philadelphia. The Super Bowl was on but I have less than no interest in that rubbish. Apparently the underdogs won, not that anyone cares about it now.

Today I landed in Baltimore, or rather Goucher College, where I'm hanging with Walker. I think tonight we are gonna hit some beers, then there's some Mardi Gras party or something tommorow. During the day I'm gonna delve into Baltimore. Then Wednesday I think I'll take a cheap bus to Washington. Maybe hurl some abuse at the White House. On Thursday I'm gonna go back to Phili, hit a record store, see some shit and back my bags ready for a week in Austin, Texas. I'm flying out on Friday morning. Rock n' doll.