Our Texan buddies, Chris and Kevin, who were our rhythm section for the southern US tour earlier this year – and for Europe in July – hail from their own band, House Of Moist.

Kevin and partner Stacey invited us to stay at their place in Houston twice this year before different tours. Lovely guys – and an absolute pleasure to hang out with, they took us into their lives for the short time we were there, and treated us like family. Amazingly, I still have some good recollection of sitting up late with Kevin, after a beer or 10, usually followed by a series of Vodka night-caps.

House of Moist is Kevin and Chris’s band (that’s Kev on drums – hitting damned hard as he does). They’ve been around a while, playing shows all over the US including repeat appearances at Summerfest in Milwaukee. The shots above were taken at Houston’s Warehouse Live in 2008. It’s an edgy metal sound, layered heavy guitars & gritty vocals. Check their Myspace.

Checkya tomorrow.
Fires out.

Another Monday & we have some classic Monday-itus here at ‘the Fire Dept’. A big weekend it was, starting Friday night at Vibe in Smith St, Fitzroy, then Saturday night BBQing out here at the farm which spilled well into Sunday. Just a little shaky today.

Here’s another video featuring a band we listened to a lot on the road this year – Butthole Surfers. The song in the video, Shame of Life, was released later on in the band’s career.

The Butthole Surfers hail from Texas USA and were renowned for crazed and disturbed live shows. They hammered themselves with psychedelic drugs which, not surprisingly, had a major influence on their sound. They were so wild at their shows (both on and off the stage) that promoters and festival organisers were continually in the dilemma of loathing to work with the band – but booking them anyway as fierce demand grew for their twisted, debauched live shows.

I particularly like this song and video. The Buttholes have melded a punk ethos into an electro sound – while retaining the twisted, lyrical nature and imagery of the band. (we played this song continually during the mid year tour of Poland)

Checkya tomorrow,

Fires out.

The latest Somewhere In The World video is ready for release in our next ‘Hose Down’ eNews. Each month, wherever we are, we get together with local artists and friends – and record a song to video.

Sign up to our email list for our once-a-month email featuring tour tales, Max’s food diaries, our ‘Somewhere In The World’ video series & more.

The next edition of Hose Down is out Tuesday morning – direct to your inbox. The video below was released back in July’s edition (it’s one of our favourites).

We dropped over to Manhattan tonight to pick up a guitar and bass amp for the tour shows starting tomorrow. Took a wrong turn & ended up lugging the amps away from the Path station instead of torwards it. Took us a while to wake up – so we’re a little sore now, after the extra (unnecessary) endurance.

And in the morning we hit the road for Castaway’s in Ithaca tomorrow night, the first of tour dates – to end our US tour. Check the Shows page for details & we’ll see ya there.

Checkya tomorrow,

Fires out.

It’s a humid Tuesday night here in Jersey City. On Thursday morning we take the trip to upstate New York for a show at Castaways in Ithaca. Check the Shows page for details. It’s the first of the final 4 shows of this US tour. When the curtain comes down at The Saint (Asbury Park NJ) on Sunday night, we’ll be packing up to begin the journey back to Australia. We’ve been touring the US and Europe since January.

When we get home, we’re doing shows in QLD and NSW – with a final home-coming show in Melbourne on 13th November at Cherry Bar. More news about the Australian tour soon – details for those dates on the Shows page now.

And, for those of you who haven’t seen this yet, we filmed it in Brooklyn last month with our host, King.

Checkya tomorrow,

Fires out.

Today we slept… finally. The video below features footage from this week’s tour shows, including New Jersey and New Hampshire (Manchester).

Last night we were out catching Secret Country at Maxwells in Hoboken. We love that band. Another great show – perfect beer drinking tunes that force you to dance, beer can held high. Shot of the guys on stage below. Max, me and lead singer, Jay – below that. Check their MySpace.

Checkya tomorrow (enjoy the video blog).
Fires out.

Played another great show last night at Milly’s Bar in New Hampshire. First time we’ve had a pre-high-schooler on stage with us. Skyler jumped up on stage as one of Max’s volunteers & said hello to the crowd.

Because we opened the show, we got to kick back afterwards, drink beer, chat and check the other bands.

We ended up sitting at the bar with these guys, shootin the breeze & talking life in general. That’s ‘May B Knotty’ (stage name), next to Max. She’s big into Roller Derby – a brutal knock out sport, on roller skates, where your opponents attempt to smash you off your feet before you make it to the finish line.

There’s video coming from the last 4 shows. We had a brutal trip back from Manchester this morning – had to have the tour vehicle & backline returned by midday in Jersey. Traffic was chaos, we only just made it – and had to lug all our gear from there to the path train, Hoboken to JSQ. Then to the apartment. Probably the hardest tour day ever. But we’re all good now, after being a little cranky earlier in the day.

AUSSIE NEWS:
Australian Rules Grand Final ends in a draw (all tied up). Unless you’re an Aussie, this probably doesn’t mean a whole lot. But if you are, it’s big news. It’s been 33 years since the last Grand Final draw (Collingwood played in that one as well). So we get to re-live the magic of GF week – one more time. They re-play the whole thing again next Saturday (not that we’ll see much action in the US).

Checkya tomorrow,
Fires out.

Big show tonight at Milly’s Tavern, Manchester – New Hampshire. Check the Shows page for more details.

LAST NIGHT WE HAD A GREAT TIME at The Brick House in Dover NH. Awesome vibe, a lotta love in the room and 3 other sensational bands on the line-up. The shots below tell the story…



(shot above – Picnic Casket at his very last show, headlining last night at Brick House)


Local bands MJ XII, The Endless Drone and Picnic Casket pumped out fantastic sets, each bringing their own humourous bent and rockin’ vibes to a packed house. One of my favourite tour shows for this year.

Checkya tomorrow with news from Milly’s at Manchester.
Fires out.

We streamed live to the web last night at Arlene’s Grocery, NYC. Great set-up there re stage & sound.

Took a bunch of pics – loading them to Facebook as I write.


In a few moments we’ll be driving to Dover New Hampshire for a show there tonight at The Brick House. Check the Shows page for me details if ya need em.

It was great to see some familiar faces last night at Arlene’s too. Cheers!


Checkya tomorrow,
Fires out.

We’re streaming live to the web tonight, from Arlene’s Grocery in New York City. Wherever you are in the world, tune in at 11pm NY time (1pm Australian, 5am Central Europe).

Click the pic below to watch the show tonight.

News and pics from last night’s show at Lucky 7 below…
Checkya tomorrow.
Fires out.

We’ve got a show at Arlene’s Grocery, New York City – Tonight. Check the Shows page for more details.

Click the shot above to go to Arlene’s website.

It goes without saying that we had another killer time last night at Lucky 7, Jersey City.

Our second show there, Max did a whole song standing on the bar.

The hardest thing about Lucky’s is leaving at the end of the night. We peeled ourselves off the bar-stools and outa there by who-knows-when this morning. Somehow, I got up for a phone interview at 10am.

Shot below – Max on the bar at Lucky 7. More shots on Facebook.

Seeya tonight at Arlene’s Grocery in New York City.
Fires out.