Heavy Rotation - Week Of Feb. 11th

In our weekly series, Heavy Rotation, I will write about the five records I have been spinning regularly over the last week. There is not an expiration date. The records included can be from any time period at all. All entries are eligible to appear for multiple weeks. In fact, repetition is likely due to the fact that while I listen to a fair amount of music, it's not as much as I'd like to make time for. Also, as some of you may know, we have a vinyl only policy around our house, so as expected, all entries on the list are being listened to via turntable.

Ladies and germs, presenting installment four of Heavy Rotation . . .

The Decemberists | The King Is Dead
Capitol Records | 2011

For their sixth full length album, The Decemberists were able to meld their penchant for the British Folk Revival they'd been toying with on their previous two efforts with the tight, straightforward songs with which they began their career. The King Is Dead is still filled with the detailed narratives and maudlin characters that songwriter/frontman Colin Meloy has made his stock and trade. And, by embracing a neo-country arrangement and soliciting the assistance of Gillian Welch and Peter Buck, this album is easily the most accessible and memorable of the band's entire canon.

Watch the Decemberists play the entire album live in the video below.

Le Congo Danse | Compilation
Pathe/EMI | circa 1960s

This collection of Congolese bands from the 1960s is one of the more remarkable records in my collection. French record label Pathe compiled this LP in the late 60's for the cosmopolitan Parisian set. The result, more than 40 years later is a ridiculously energetic and unique set of songs that typify their place and time. Google queries have led me to discover just how rare this collection is and how expensive it can run to get a copy for you to add to your collection. Which is too bad, because it's an absolute gem.

Arcade Fire | Neon Bible
Merge Records | 2007

Arcade Fire often seem like the perfect poster children for the indie-pop meets mega pop world. Their epic, yet utterly accessible songs forged with lush instrumentation and bravado are a masterful example of the bridge that exists between the halls of hipsterdom and the mass appeal of popular music. My kids especially enjoy this band and I've been able to use their affection for Arcade Fire to springboard them in to other musical experiences that seem pretty offbeat to most 11 and 13 year olds.

David Bowie | Hunky Dory
RCA | 1971

In Many respects, Hunky Dory seems like the first truly Bowie of David Bowie's records. The first side alone contains the legendary tracks "Changes", "Oh! You Pretty Things" and "Life On Mars". This LP was just released just a year before Bowie invented his Ziggy Stardust alter-ego and a full six years before he began his now famous collaboration with producer Brian Eno. Bowie's charm and power ooze from the vinyl, but never get in the way of the remarkable songs herein. While his first three records contain moments of greatness mixed with very average material, this seems to be the first occasion where he knocked the whole thing out of the park.

R.E.M. | Reckoning
IRS Records | 1984

What else is there to say about this masterpiece of American rock and roll? Reckoning is one of the cornerstone's of my musical upbringing and a record I have never tired of hearing. There are very few records that seem as perfect to me as this one does. This is one of those ten records I would have to take to that mythical desert island where you listen to records all day long.

The Anxiety Of Anxiety

A little less than a year ago I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression. This conclusion was arrived at after I had been through a series of panic attacks that I had mistaken for asthma flare-ups. Once my doctor and I came up with a game plan, I was given some anti-anxiety meds to take on a daily basis and a prescription for Xanax to deal with panic attacks that were too much to manage with breathing techniques and other coping mechanisms.

For the first few months of this treatment plan, I felt a great deal better. Anyone who has dealt with panic attacks and anxiety is aware that often the worst parts of these episodes is the fear that arises from not knowing what is happening to your own body. The attacks are usually punctuated with feelings of dread along with physical symptoms like shortness of breath, chest pain and tingling throughout the upper body. Like most sufferers my symptoms were very typical. Knowing that these actual, physical symptoms I was experiencing were mostly manifestations of my thoughts and emotions made them easier to talk myself through. But not always.

Recently, these symptoms have become more constant even though I have maintained my normal regimen of meds. The panic attacks now are often preceded or followed by exhaustion. In addition to my previous symptoms, I have become more moody and down even when I have not had outright attacks. These are hallmark signs of depression and anxiety and I am just one of millions of sufferers. Realizing this was just like having any other illness, my recent battle with depression led me to try to find a local psychologist or counselor to help me deal with these issues.

Since I have health insurance, I presumed that the best place for me to start was by calling my insurance provider to find out how much mental health coverage I had and which therapists in my area participated with their plan. After bouncing through a labyrinthine automated telephone system and waiting on hold for several minutes, I was informed that I only had mental health coverage if I was admitted to a hospital or institution. There was, as the terse response from the other end of the line explained it, "No outpatient mental health coverage on my plan."

The health insurance I purchase is from the biggest provider in my state, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. This is a non-profit insurance group that charges me more than $600 per month to cover just my wife and I. Because we own our business, I am not on a corporate plan or getting insurance from the office where my spouse works. And yes, that $600 does not even cover my two children. We get special coverage for them through a state children's insurance plan that is marvelous and is also a Blue Cross plan.

Not only is there no "outpatient mental health" coverage on my plan, but my wife and I only receive two doctor visits and a physical each year without paying a hefty co-pay based on the percentage of the cost of the visit. But, If we get sick three times in one year, there is at least some degree of coverage. In other words, if you have the flu, you can pay a part of the bill and get treated. If you have depression, anxiety and panic attacks you can pay for it on your own or you can just learn to live with it.

This is an illness that affects my family in a very real way as well. When I suffer through bouts of depression or anxiety, I am much more likely to be irritable and less likely to enjoy the scant opportunities that the four of us get for family time during a typical work week that is overfilled with commitments, distractions and long days at the office. In short, this disease is keeping me from living a full and complete life, just like any serious disease would do to my body.

Virtually the entire medical community acknowledges that mental illness is just as real as physical illnesses like cancer, diabetes or a viral infection. So, why do we allow our insurance companies to treat them like they're vastly different from each other? I do not choose to be depressed and I sure as shit don't like pulling my car over and clutching my chest in a full blown panic attack wondering if I am going to die or if I am going crazy. The illness is real and I live with it everyday, and I need to treat it. Sadly, after I have paid more than $5000 per year for sub-par coverage, I don't have a lot of extra money lying around to pay hundreds more a month for the psychological treatment I have come to require for my own happiness and well being. Certainly, there are more demure ways to phrase it, but this situation is bullshit.

This circumstance is not the first time in my life that I have felt bamboozled by the insurance industry. When our youngest daughter was just a toddler, she was hospitalized several times for asthma and our co-pays and other medical charges nearly bankrupted us, even though we had insurance at the time. Living in this day and age with no health insurance is simply a gamble our family cannot take and the coverages that are available to us as one family looking for a plan are shoddy at best. The system costs too much and provides too little in return, but there are seemingly no worthwhile alternatives.

When I hear people rail on those trying to fix the health care system I am filled with rage and rancor. If you have not lived through these circumstances and have never been pushed to the point that you felt you were going to lose everything because of an illness, there is no way to explain to you how broken the system really is. Care costs too much, insurance is merely a necessary evil and stop gap measure and the situation keeps rolling in the wrong direction.

I don't claim to have all, or even any of the answers, but I know that millions of lives are damaged by this broken system and no one truly seems interested in finding an actual way to solve the problem. Sure, there is political jockeying and election year theory, but never a comprehensive plan to get a handle on this issue that is sending people to the poor house. Hell, the only way I'll ever be able to afford to treat my illness is if it sends me to the nut house.

LOOK: Stanley Kubrick's New York Photographs

Stanley Kubrick self portrait with showgirl Rosemary Williams.

Before his days as a renowned filmmaker, Stanley Kubrick mad a name for himself as a photographer with Look Magazine. Now, the website Twisted Sifter has put together a very nice piece on Kubrick's photographic legacy by compiling some of his best images of New York city in the late 1940's.

The collection is an impressive array of New York street scenes and people that deftly capture its place and time. And, these images seem a direct connection to the visual style of Kubrick's early films like The Killing and Killer's Kiss.

You can view the article and collection on the Twisted Sifter site.

UPDATE: Perusing the web and totally by happenstance, I just stumbled upon another set of Kubrick photos over at Retronaut. This time, the collection comes from a trip Kubrick made to Chicago in 1949, working again for Look Magazine. These images are just as impressive as his New York work. 

Surviving Beach Boys To Reunite For Grammy Appearance

If you're a Beach Boys fan who has anxiously awaited the band's proposed reunion with Brian Wilson, prepare to be very excited. All of the surviving members of the seminal California band will reunite for a live performance for the first time in more than twenty years at the upcoming Grammy Awards, according to a report from Billboard Magazine.

Now, prepare to have your hopes dashed back again unless you envisioned that this long awaited reunion should include contributions from Maroon 5 and Foster The People. Yep, two bands that have - at least on the surface - jack shit to do with the Beach Boys are going to muddy the water of what otherwise has the potential to be a very interesting moment in popular music history. It seems like Brian Wilson could arrange some dope harmonies for "Pumped Up Kicks" but imagining how to incorporate the 5 Maroons is beyond comprehension right now.  You'll have to tune into the Grammys on Feb. 12 to find out for yourself.

The Beach Boys are currently working on a record slated for release later this year and will kick off a lengthy tour with the reunited lineup on April 27 in New Orleans.

WATCH: Teaser Trailer For The Bourne Legacy Revealed

Universal Pictures has revealed the initial trailer for the fourth installment of The Bourne series. Haters throughout the blogosphere have been chattering incessantly about the film since it was announced several months ago that Matt Damon would not be reprising his role in the film as Jason Bourne. Instead, Jeremy Renner stars as Aaron Cross, another recruit in the Agency's Treadstone Program.

The first look at the trailer certainly makes it look like Renner has the goods to pull this sort of thing off, and the supporting cast of Edward Norton, Rachel Weisz, and Stacy Keach seem like great counterparts to make this happen. The Bourne Legacy was written and directed by Tony Gilroy and hits theaters on August 3, 2012.

Watch the trailer below.

Paste Magazine Reveals List of 100 Greatest Movie Posters

The editors over at Paste Magazine have compiled their list of the best movie poster from each of the last 100 years at the movies. Some iconic choices like Metropolis, Sunset Boulevard and Casablanca of course made the list. But, because each year only gets one entry, there are some questionable omissions. Most obviously, how in the hell did they manage to presume that the broadsheet for Attack Of The 50 Foot Woman was better than the glorious poster for Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo?

In any case, you can see the full list on the Paste Magazine site and check out the Vertigo poster below just so you know once and for all how remarkably great it is.

Shins Release Tour Dates and B-Side

As previously mentioned here before, indie darlings The Shins have a new long player called The Port Of Morrow coming out on March 20. For a few weeks now twee kids in every neighborhood across America have been rocking to the first single from the record, "Simple Song".

Now, the band have unveiled a b-side to the single, entitled "September". In addition to that joyous news, The Shins have also plotted a tour across much of the nation for the spring and early summer.

You can see a video for "September" below and find out what day James Mercer and Co. will hit your town.

The Shins Tour Dates:
April 13—Cosmopolitan/The Pool—Las Vegas, Nevada
April 22—Civic Auditorium—Santa Cruz, California
April 23—Robert Mondavi Center—Davis, California
April 25—Grand Sierra Resort & Casino—Reno, Nevada
May 25—Les Schwab Amphitheatre—Bend, Oregon
May 28—Red Butte Garden Amphitheater—Salt Lake City, Utah
May 29— Red Rocks Amphitheatre—Morrison, Colorado
May 31—Harrahs Council Bluffs—Council Bluffs, Iowa
June 4—The Pageant—St Louis, Missouri
June 5—LC Indoor Pavilion—Columbus, Ohio
June 6—Fillmore Detroit—Detroit, Michigan
June 8—Masonic Auditorium—Cleveland, Ohio
June 9—Iroquois Amphitheatre—Louisville, Kentucky


The Shins: “September” (b-side of “Simple Song” 7”) from Record Store Day on Vimeo.

Franzen vs. The E-Reader

Acclaimed author Jonathan Franzen, best known for his novels Freedom and The Corrections, recently spoke at a literary festival about his concern over the widespread use of e-readers like the Kindle. In his rant, he relayed his fears over the impermanence of the virtual book model.

“I think, for serious readers, a sense of permanence has always been part of the experience. Everything else in your life is fluid, but here is this text that doesn’t change. Maybe nobody will care about printed books 50 years from now, but I do. When I read a book, I’m handling a specific object in a specific time and place. The fact that when I take the book off the shelf it still says the same thing - that’s reassuring."

Now, UK columnist for The Observer newspaper, Henry Porter has fired a salvo directly back at Franzen. The piece rebuts Franzen's arguments and fully endorses the idea that expanding technology does not eliminate older forms of expression. Porter also makes some great comparisons between the e-reader and its place in publishing and the art world today. You can read the full piece on The Observer's website.

The issue of technology and how it influences our culture and our behaviors is eminently fascinating and has been discussed on the virtual pages of the Sabauteur previously. This is a topic of debate that is going nowhere anytime soon.

Heavy Rotation - Week Of Feb. 3rd

In our weekly series, Heavy Rotation, I will write about the five records I have been spinning regularly over the last week. There is not an expiration date. The records included can be from any time period at all. All entries are eligible to appear for multiple weeks. In fact, repetition is likely due to the fact that while I listen to a fair amount of music, it's not as much as I'd like to make time for. Also, as some of you may know, we have a vinyl only policy around our house, so as expected, all entries on the list are being listened to via turntable.

Ladies and germs, presenting installment three of Heavy Rotation . . .

Miles Kurosky | The Desert Of Shallow Effects
Miles Kurosky for The People's Committee for the Preservation Of Sound | 2010

Miles Kurosky disbanded his brilliant band Beulah, in 2004. The demise of the band, due mostly to personal frictions and a lack of momentum, is chronicled in the wonderful film, A Good Band Is Easy To Kill. Kurosky was obviously the driving creative force behind Beulah, but personal setbacks and health problems delayed the completion of his first solo record for more than five years. The Desert Of Shallow Effects reminds us it was worth the wait. The songs are devastatingly personal and emotionally wrought, but littered with humor and playful innuendo. Kurosky is a master of using jubilant arrangements to play counterpoint to his often dour narratives.

Vampire Weekend | Contra
XL Recordings | 2010

When the first Vampire Weekend record came out, I largely ignored on the basis of their effete, trust fund Ivy League indie pop pedigree. Their self-titled debut came off like a frat boy version of Graceland and I tuned out. Then along came the second album, Contra and I realized that I had missed the boat completely. Sure, the influences are a bit cloying and the over-privileged mystique seems to have some validity, the alluring hooks of this record are undeniable.

The Housemartins | London 0, Hull 4
Go Discs! | 1986

The Housemartins are such an unabashedly British band that they named this LP after a fantasized football (soccer to the Ugly Americans) score of their hometown team scorching the big city twits from London. In 11 songs on this record, their Britishness is reinforced time and again with colloquial phrasing, that UK brand of white boy soul and some rambunctiously energetic 2 minute pop tunes. With a chip on their shoulders and the sound of a blue collar Smiths, this record sounds remarkably fresh and fun for its age.

Fruit Bats | Spelled In Bones
Sub Pop Records | 2005

Spelled In Bones marks the third record Fruit Bats effort and the most fully realized and poppy of their canon. Combining nostalgia with first person narrative and a penchant for a production style of the 70's, primary Fruit Bat, Eric Johnson crafts a world it's very easy to get lost within. The songs are warm and inviting and weave together like a beach novel.

Tom Waits | Swordfish Trombones
Island/Def Jam | 1983

This is the album where Waits made the jump from his loose lipped, piano lounge act persona to more of a musical junk-pile mentality and a step away from traditional songwriting. Even though the record is a major departure from his more straightforward work to that point, this record is filled with amazing harm, humor and nostalgia. Waits is a master of exposition and geography in his songs. Just one listen to "In The Neighborhood" will bring you back to your childhood on a warm summer's day near the house where you grew up. And it will make you smile.

Movies That Changed My Life: Raiders Of The Lost Ark

During spring break of 1981, my parents took me to Washington DC. I was nearly nine years old and elated about the trip. We saw the capitol and the White House. There were visits to the various halls of the Smithsonian and while eating at a table in front of a pizza joint, a motorcade went by with Anwar Sadat and his aides inside. Do you have any idea how exciting it is for an eight - almost nine - year old to get to see the President of Egypt in the flesh? As great as that was, and still is, the highlight of the trip would be going to the Natural History Museum to see the dinosaur exhibit. Except that when we arrived, the dino exhibit was "Closed For Renovations".

After a full fifteen minutes of sobbing, snot-wiping and wishing it to not be so, my folks corralled me away from the gathered onlookers and took me for ice cream. Even a double scoop of chocolate chip could not heal my wounds that day. So, my parents began hatching a plan to remedy the situation later that very summer. They said that after school let out, we would take a trip to Toronto.

Now you know you're loved when your folks plan another vacation just to make up for the fact that the dinosaurs you've pined so hard for, were unseeable. I mean it's just bones and wire, but my third grade soul could accept no substitute. We soldiered happily through our remaining time in the nation's capitol and I began to fantasize about the collection of T-Rexes and Brachiosaurs that the Royal Ontario Museum had to offer.

After the school year ended my folks made good on their promise. We packed the car and headed to Canada, which from our home in Michigan's thumb, was only four or so hours away. That evening we checked in to our hotel and in the lobby I found a brochure for the Royal Ontario Museum. I pored over its contents and photos until I finally fell asleep, dreaming of running with the Stegosaurus and watching the Pterodactyls fly overhead.

We arrived the hour the museum opened and I insisted that we head for the dinosaurs first. Our tickets were handed over and guide maps were doled out and I bee-lined for the dinosaur wing. Almost immediately, I saw the sign. CLOSED FOR RENOVATION. Could this be possible? Was there some great conspiracy to prevent me from seeing the creatures of the Jurassic era? After the initial stage of denial, I moved to the second and most prolonged stage of grief for the American eight year old: Anger and Tears.

A full meltdown ensued and it was worse than the D.C. episode. My sobs and cries echoed back and forth of the marble halls of Toronto's glorious old museum. There is much of the next several hours that I have blocked out of my memory completely. It seems that we must have seen the rest of the museum, but I have no memory of it. Until our early dinner that evening at the Spaghetti Factory, I can recall virtually nothing.

After dinner, the suggestion surfaced that maybe a movie would cheer me up. I was not in the mood, but I was quickly instructed that I would not, "Sit in the hotel room feeling sorry for myself". The vacation was a family outing and we were going to see a movie.

Arriving at the theater, I saw a cartoonish poster with a series of images that included snakes, a man appearing to be in mid-scream, and a guy with a whip wearing a fancy hat. My bullshit meter went through the roof and I assumed that I was being dragged to some dumb-ass Disney thing with a couple of clever kids and an evil witch or some shit. Never mind that there were no kids anywhere on the poster. It seemed certain that I was being patronized with a sort of dreck I didn't even like anymore. The sophisticated tastes of a Midwestern nine year old were too much for my parents to handle and they just ducked into the first movie hall they could find with a "family style film" showing that night. Oh Lord, how wrong I was.

It seems certain to me now that after thirty years of consideration, in many ways I had not truly seen a film before Raiders Of The Lost Ark. Sure, I had watched lots of movies, and even enjoyed them greatly. But, this was an experience alone unto itself.

The music made the blood pump faster. Harrison Ford's charm and cool and wit made you positive he was the coolest dude on the planet. I watched Nazis and Egyptian and Gypsies fight over lost relics and talk about the Bible like a treasure map in a Robert Louis Stevenson novel and not like some boring ass Sunday school lesson. This shit can make the Bible seem interesting? I'm sold.

From the motorcycle chases to fighting natives in the jungle to wondering why it had to be snakes, and of course to that massive and unforgettable boulder, I was utterly transfixed. The memory of missed dinosaurs vanished and I was ready to trade my natural history penchant in for a pith helmet and an Archaeology workshop at a moment's notice. The misery and horror from earlier that very day had melted away in the powerful glow of a projector.

Hundreds of movies have this effect on millions of people. It is corny and trite and obvious to say that movies are transformative. That of course, is inherent in their nature. What happened to me in that theater in a country not so far away was that I noticed that power for the first time. I realized I was in the church of the cinema and I was a devout believer.

I now have children of my own and have watched Raiders with them. For them it is another movie they sort of enjoyed that their old man likes a little too much. It feels great to watch it with them and I still love it a great deal. But even with them, it can never be like that first time that night in Toronto when I was just a sad little boy hunting for dinosaurs.

Stream The New Magnetic Fields Single

Photo by Chris Buck

Stephen Merritt and his Magnetic Fields are famous for their audacious 69 Love Songs set and received even further notoriety when they were the collective subject of the recent documentary, Strange Powers chronicling Merritt's day to day life and his musical approach. Now, Merritt and Magnetic Fields are set to release their tenth album on March 6th.

Entitled Love At The Bottom Of The Sea, it marks the first Magnetic Fields release on Merge Records since the much lauded 69 Love Songs and the follow-up to 2010's Realism. The first single from the record, "Andrew In Drag", is a truly Merrtian pop song that both provokes chuckles and humming from the listener after just one spin.

You can stream the new song below and see upcoming Magnetic Fields tour dates throughout North America and Europe. There is also a track listing for Love At The Bottom Of The Sea.

The Magnetic Fields - Andrew in Drag by MergeRecords

Love at the Bottom of the Sea Track Listing:
1. God Wants Us to Wait
2. Andrew in Drag
3. Your Girlfriend's Face
4. Born For Love
5. I'd Go Anywhere with Hugh
6. Infatuation (With Your Gyration)
7. The Only Boy in Town
8. The Machine in Your Hand
9. Goin' Back to the Country
10. I've Run Away to Join the Fairies
11. The Horrible Party
12. My Husband's Pied-a-Terre
13. I Don't Like Your Tone
14. Quick!
15. All She Cares About Is Mariachi
--
THE MAGNETIC FIELDS - 2012 TOUR DATES
Mar 6 Hudson, NY Helsinki Hudson
Mar 7 Philadelphia, PA Union Transfer
Mar 8 New York, NY Barnes and Noble
Mar 11 Minehead, UK All Tomorrow's Parties
Mar 14, 15, 16 Austin, TX SXSW
Mar 18 Vancouver, BC The Vogue
Mar 19 Seattle, WA Neptune Theater
Mar 20 Seattle, WA Neptune Theater
Mar 21 Portland, OR Roseland Theater
Mar 23 Los Angeles, CA Orpheum Theater
Mar 24 Oakland, CA Fox Theater
Mar 26 Chicago, IL Vic Theater
Mar 27 Chicago, IL Vic Theater
Mar 28 Iowa City, IA Englert Theater
Mar 30 Toronto, ON Sound Academy
Mar 31 Montreal, QC Le National
Apr 3 New York, NY Beacon Theater
Apr 4 New York, NY Beacon Theater
Apr 6 Boston, MA Berklee Performance Center
Apr 7 Boston, MA Berklee Performance Center
Apr 9 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
Apr 11 Carrboro, NC Cat's Cradle
Apr 12 Carrboro, NC Cat's Cradle
Apr 13 Atlanta, GA Variety Playhouse
Apr 24 Brighton, UK Komedia
Apr 25 London, UK Royal Festival Hall
Apr 27 Manchester, UK RNCM
Apr 28 Dublin, IR Olympia
Apr 29 Cork, IR Opera House
May 1 Porto, PT Casa da Musica
May 2 Lisbon, PT Teatro Maria Matos
May 4 Murcia, ES Estrella Levante SOS 4.8
May 6 Barcelona, ES Sala Apolo
May 7 Madrid, ES Teatro Rialto
May 9 Oslo, NO Rockefeller
May 11 Gothenburg, SE Annedalskyrkan
May 12 Stockholm, SE Filadelfiakyrkan
May 14 Berlin, DE Passionskirche
May 15 Hamburg, DE Kampnagel k6
May 16 Amsterdam, NL De Duif

Hospitality Set To Release Debut LP

Tomorrow marks the official release date for the self-titled debut LP from Hospitality. Being a sucker for well-crafted and intelligent pop songs, it seemed a shame to let this occasion pass unnoticed. To celebrate, watch the video below for "Friends Of Friends". Not only is it a catchy song likely to make you run out to your local record purveyor, but it also features Alia Shakwat of Arrested Development fame. And if there is one thing we love around here more than intelligent pop songs, it's intelligent TV shows that make us laugh our asses off.

Oh, and after the new video, you can spy are a few Hospitality tour dates (imagine the puns they'll have to endure) along the eastern half of North America.


Hospitality - "Friends Of Friends" from stereogum on Vimeo.

Hospitality Tour Dates:
Feb 3 Brooklyn, NY Glasslands Gallery (Record Release Show)
Feb 25 San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall (Noise Pop w/ Archers of Loaf)
Feb 26 Los Angeles, CA Troubadour w/ Archers of Loaf
Feb 29 Toronto, ON Horseshoe Tavern w/ Tennis
Mar 2 Boston, MA Brighton Music Hall w/ Tennis
Mar 3 New York, NY Bowery Ballroom w/ Tennis
Mar 7 New Haven, CT BAR
Mar 9 Chapel Hill, NC Local 506 w/ Tennis
Mar 10 Atlanta, GA The Earl w/ Tennis
Mar 11 Orlando, FL Orange You Glad Festival