there are no words

to express our gratitude for what happened last night. thank you so very much to everyone who came out to our record release show, it was by far the best show we've ever played and the most fun we've ever had.

thank you for your continued support, love, and encouragement.
it means the world to us. truly.

since we've posting nothing but impersonal updates and the like on here for awhile, i thought i'd share something a bit more personal. hope you don't mind.

i got my hands on the new (unreleased) propaghandi album a few weeks ago and it encouraged me to go back through their catalog and dust off my old punk cd's and throw them back into rotation. the result? i have been listening to propaghandi nonstop for the last few weeks and don't see it stopping anytime soon. most recently i have been stuck on the album "less talk, more rock." in my opinion, it has got to be one of the greatest punk albums ever conceived. i can't believe how amazing this record is; i appreciate it ten times as much now as i did when i was 17. the new album (supporting caste) is also amazing by the way, albeit very different from older classics like "less talk, more rock."

propaghandi was one of the first punk bands i EVER heard. when i was in 5th grade an older cooler neighborhood kid brought over the fat wreck chords comp cd "fat music for fat people" and played it for me. i had never heard anything like it; i specifically remember loving the propaghandi song "anti-manifesto" and nofx's "kill all the white man." (i walked around the house proudly chanting the last refrain of "kill all the white mannnn" for days on end. had my mom not been as cool as she is, i may have regretted reciting such a phrase). at such a young tender age, i could never have appreciated the musical talent, lyrical genius, militant politics, or utter originality of a band like propaghandi. i didn't really get into music and punk specifically until 8th or 9th grade, but listening to propaghandi all those years ago planted a seed in me that continues to grow and flower as i write this.

for me, punk (and by extension hardcore) was always supposed to be intelligent, poignant, and political. i guess i never realized it until now, but listening to bands like propaghandi at the earliest stages of my musical education cemented that belief in me - and it is one of the strongest and most cherished convictions i have as an individual. it has guided me through all subsequent musical journeys, most specifically my own. i consciously try to carry forward the flame that bands like propaghandi ignited in me all those years ago through all of the music i create as well as in the way my bands carry themselves. these convictions have shaped me in ways i will probably never fully realize as an individual as well.

if anyone else hasn't visited this album in a while, i strongly encourage you to do so now. if you've never heard it at all, now is an excellent time! you can download it quickly and for free here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?iwngmlcdnow
and read the lyrics

i leave you with some of my favorite propghandi lyrics:

"Some of my otherwise brilliant and productive friends (like scoundrels and their flags) take final refuge in character assasinations; they ignore the issue and deny the relation between our consumption and brutality. So you can go ahead and roll your eyes and marginalize me/socially penalize me: play on my insecurities. And you can feign ignorance, but you're not stupid, you're just selfish. And you're a slave to your impulse. And I kinda thought we all shared common threads in that we gravitated here to challenge the conventions we've been fed by a culture that treats (living, breathing, feeling) creatures like (biological) machines. And if you buy that shit then how long 'till it's me who serves as your commodity? Through (for example), institutionalized violence and oppression of workers and women raped by sexism (and how about native americans?). Do you still insist on feigning indignance (aka: indignation) to reason? To collective self-interest? Tell you what- I'll call you on your shit, PLEASE CALL ME ON MINE. Then we can grow together and make this shit-hole planet better in time. So why not consider someone else: STOP CONSUMING ANIMALS."

"I speak outside what is recognized as the border between "reason" and "insanity". But I consider it a measure of my humanity to be written off by the living graves of a billion murdered lives. And I'm not ashamed of my recurring dreams about me and a gun and a different species (hint: starts with "h" and rhymes with "Neuman's") of carnage strewn about the stockyards, the factories and farms. Still I know as well as anyone that it does less good than harm to be this honest with a conscience eased by lies. But you cannot deny that meat is still murder. Dairy is still rape. And I'm still as stupid as anyone, but I know my mistakes. I have recognized one form of oppression, now I recognize the rest. And life's too short to make another's shorter-(animal liberation now!)."

"Why don't we plant a mechanic virus and erase the memory of the machines that maintain this capitalist dynasty? And yes, I recognize the irony that the very system I oppose affords me the luxury of biting the hand that feeds. But that's exactly why priviledged fucks like me should feel obliged to whine and kick and scream- until everyone has everything they need."

see you soon on tour,
drew