Well, the crazyness of the tour is over … for now.  There were so many good memories along the way that it’s hard to do a thorough recap of everything that happened.  I’ll start with the last few shows and work way backwards.

Charlotte was amazing, thanks to the overwhelming support of our friends.  It seemed like everyone we knew in Charlotte came to support us including Chris, Meg, Alan, Brent, Heather, Justin, Jonathan, my Mom, Jillian, Erin, Joseph, Jason, Katie, and Wes.  It was kind of like an Anderson Reunion of sorts.  It was great to catch up with everybody and play in a new venue.  Our opening group, Alex Radus, also showed out some great talent with their soft jazz stylings.  What a sexy voice that man has.

Our next stop was the Preservation Pub in Knoxville on Friday.  We had some loyal supporters come out for that show as well (Rhonda, Sarah, Matt, and Stephanie) which made it worth while.  It was another new venue but we really loved it.  The sound was fantastic (thanks, Darrell!) and the people were pretty attentive and responsive considering most of them were there to socialize, drink, or eat.  Because of a small misunderstanding we ended up playing our longest set (two sets, rather) of the whole tour but something about the impromptu nature of it inspired everyone in the band to put on an awesome show.  We had improvised solos at the end of songs, different versions/lyrics to a few songs, and an all around “rocking” time.  Also, Dustin Hammond opened up for us and had one of the coolest and unique song stylings that included mouth trumpet solos and yodeling.  Plus he has an awesome beard that puts all other beards to shame.  Rock on Dustin.

The last show of the tour was at the Go Bar in Athens with our friends from Union.  Though we didn’t have the same numbers that we did at other shows we still had a great time and got our first chance to rock out under a disco ball.  It was a fun way to close out the tour.  We also got a chance to all ride in one car because Union let us rock out on their equipment.  It was the first time we had ever ridden together for a show and inspired us to try to commit to getting a trailer of huge van so we can do it more often.

A short recap of my favorite non-music moments: playing some sweet xbox 360 (courtesy of Jamie and the Rameys), crossing 100,000 miles in the trusty Malibu, our extended rap sessions, pranking Sam while he was on the phone, the video tour diaries, becoming “The Fire Tonight”, bringing down the maturity level every time we entered a room, the hospitality of everyone we stayed with (Russes, Martin’s, Cox’s, and Havey’s), watching drunk people, and many more.

Some of my favorite performance moments: pulling off a Radiohead cover set, rocking out for the first time to “Fast Song”, playing to our biggest crowd of fans yet at McGee’s, playing for our friends in Charlotte, getting people to turn around every time we played “Pay the Waitress”, playing in a foil covered room, and everything else.

While I should probably save it for another post, we did brief sandwich tour as well covering Subway, Firehouse, Publix, Main St Deli, and a few others.  For vegetarian fare Subway was actually my favorite.  Feel free to comment with your favorite sandwich experiences.

The tour was a great experience and, I think, taught us a lot about ourselves and our band.  While it wasn’t always fun and games we did have a fantastic time and are committed to making some awesome rock music together.  We look forward to seeing everyone in the near future at one of our upcoming shows.  Also, I have attempted to tag everyone that I remembered coming to a show in this note so if I left you out please tag yourself!

After a brief hiatus from tour blogging I’m back.  The last few days have been busy and brought us some great stories, most of which are available for consumption through video on our facebook group.  But for those of you who have sold your soul to WhoreBook here’s the low tech version.

Saturday night we had a fantastic turn out at Corbett McGee’s Irish Pub in Anderson.  The pub was great for hosting us and it made for a fun show for all of our friends.  Our good friend Daniel Machado was good enough to drive up from Columbia and open for us.  He played some great tunes off his upcoming album, which you should definitely be looking for in the near future.

The real story began when Daniel got back out to his car after the show.  He had one tire that was, in his words, “devastatingly flat”.  In the process of putting the spare on his tire iron split and, when he was forced to use wrenches to take the nuts off, he encountered one that was diabolically tight.  While attempting to remove the last nut we (the group of macho dudes who had inserted ourselves into the situation) managed to strip the outside.  Finally, Daniel decided to call it quits for the night and come bunk with the rest of the band until we could get back out there with bigger tools on Sunday.

We returned on Sunday with some tried and true tools, courtesy of one of our awesome band parents - Jeff Martin.  The tools included vice grips, a hammer, a sledge hammer, and a smattering of wrenches.  Instead of making more progress on loosening the bolt we (Daniel working while Stevo, Jamie, and I watched) only succeeded in striping the outside of the bolt further.  The highlight of the McGee parking lot experience was the sledgehammer putt-putt that was birthed from our boredom and a found golf ball.  Eventually, we called in the cavalry and towed the old Mustang to Wal-Mart for the help of professionals.

While in Wal-Mart we passed the time until the car was ready by consuming unholy amounts of Icee in Subway.  One great quote from that time was Daniel’s take on the porn industry: “I have mixed feelings about porn.  On the one hand it’s completely disgusting and perverse but on the other hand they look like they’re having a good time and making good money.”  Wally world’s prognosis on the car, once they got to it, was that we would have to go elsewhere to get the bolt removed.  Even the professionals couldn’t get it off.  It didn’t help though that they had “saved” his car until last, which meant that every other place in town was closed by the time we had the chance to take it elsewhere.

So Daniel decided to take matters into his own hands and bought a blow torch, crowbar, and chisel.  We spent the next two cold hours applying the blue flame to the nut and attacking it with a screwdriver, chisel, crowbar, and hammer.  We had given up on ever actually unscrewing the nut and only hoped to break it off or whittle it down to nothing.  All of our work was for naught, however, when we were done we had a dull chisel, marred crowbar, and a little less of a nut.  The indestructible lugnut lived on.  We decided to go ahead and have the object of our wrath towed again to Firestone where we hoped it could be taken care of early the next morning.  With all the speed of a one legged squirrel, the tow truck arrived and a good three hours later the car was in its next resting place.

On Sunday, after almost 48 hours of full out war, the Firestone employees had used their mechanical wizardry to remove the amazing indestructo-nut.  Apparently, it was on so securely that the rim had been destroyed in the removal process as well.  We weren’t really surprised.

While the weekend was long and frustrating at times, it ended up being totally awesome.  The show was great and we loved getting a chance to play for our friends and fans.  Daniel did an awesome job with his solo performing and, best of all, new friends were made during the trying time spent angrily attacking the nut.  Daniel aptly referred to our time as the “Fellowship of the Lugnut”.  For a more pop-culture approach to the story check out our video recaps on facebook.

We decided to cancel the Asheville gig due to the huge …. amounts of snow that were covering the mountains of North Carolina (and likely still are).  So we came up to Clemson early for Nate to start school today.  We’ve been working on some non-music band related things today, like video and web stuff, and came across a band that hijacked our radio single, “Roller Coaster”.  If you watch the youtube video of their version of the song the parallels become ridiculously obvious … a lawsuit will be forthcoming shortly.  Watch the video for yourself.

On to Anderson this evening to catch up with good friends.  See you guys on Saturday at Corbett’s!

Last night we managed to pull off our appearance as Radiohead.  No less than two people said that we “sounded better than Radiohead” - a comment which doesn’t hold up to scrutiny but boosts my easily influenced self esteem.  The highlight of our set was our closer, “Paranoid Android”, which we rocked out.  There is a video on youtube right now of our opening number and rumors of a video for the closing number but we’ll see.  We’re hoping to add a few, if not most, of the songs into our cover rotation.  Plus, we actually earned some dolores for our performance which was a welcome and awesome end to the evening.

This afternoon I played solo at Five Points Pub in downtown Columbia.  Jamie and Stevo came to support since Nate couldn’t make the age limit to get in.  It was a half cover / half original set that included “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley and “Army” by Ben Folds.  Hearing my voice clearly in the monitors is a true joy that, unfortunately, I don’t get much playing with a rock band.  It turns out that I can actually carry a tune : )

We’re 95% done with a new song that is a little bit of a departure for us in terms of form.  It’s also heavily influenced by our metalhead members - but in a good way.  We’re pretty excited about it and looking forward to debuting it sometime soon.  We have another song almost “in the can”, as they say, and a few more in the development stages.  The albums seems to be coming together.

See you at a local venue soon : )

Technically it’s only been day one for a few minutes, but I’ve been wanting to write a tour diary my whole life so I’m a little eager.  Today was the first day of many miles and hours spent in the ol’ faithful malibu - almost 500 miles and over 7 and 1/2 hours, in the rain no less.  Tonight we’re going to be rocking out a Radiohead cover set at New Brookland Tavern’s New Years Eve show.  We’re all really excited and nervous about it.  We have all be practicing on our own and in various configurations but never as a whole band until today - hence the nervousness.

I personally am coming of somewhat of an emotional roller coaster over the holidays.  Lots of family, several states, and many nights away from home have somehow unsettled me and heightened my typically low-level anxiety.  Tonight was a great alleviator though as we ran through the set before Stevo arrived from NC and spent the rest of the evening playing God’s glorious invention: the Xbox 360.  Call of Duty 4 is just one amazingly beautiful game and the single player campaign is intense, engrossing, and tons-o-fun.  Rock Band, on the other hand, is earning my ire.  As a musician, when I play a rhythm game I expect to be rewarded and not chastised when I play my instrument correctly.  Guitar Hero doesn’t seem to have any problem responding to my playing so why should Rock Band be any different?  It shouldn’t.  It is.  It makes me feel like that egotistical guy that comes over to your house, plays the game for 30 seconds, and then decides that it’s the games fault that he’s not winning … except this time it really is the game’s fault.  But that’s a whole other topic : )

It’s been fantastic to hang out with the guys as well.  I forget how much fun we have together sometimes.  Often there’s only time for business during our visits.  Tomorrow as we start rehearsal in earnest the “good times” might get a little heated but tonight was a nice chance to kick off the tour with non-gigging related R&R.  Can’t wait to rock 4 states in two weeks and to see you at a show.

Tis the season for recap blog entries and TV specials for 2007. This will be more of a long overdue post than a recap but how can I completely avoid being sentimental about the good and bad of 12 months?

First and foremost (sometimes people use that as a turn of phrase, but I really do mean “most importantly”), God provides. Because my family spent almost a decade depending solely on the generosity of others to support themselves, I have become accustomed to God’s generous and timely provision. However, I strive to be grateful and (hopefully) take it for granted as little as possible. Explanation: Stephanie found out on Friday that her teaching load (read: salary) has been cut for the next semester at one of her schools. For some teachers a reduction in class load is probably a relief or at least not a big deal. For us Steph is the primary financial provider and last semester she was already teaching fewer hours than expected. As we drove back home from Florida on Saturday we discussed our financial/occupational options for the coming semester. In case you’ve never had one, money discussions between couples can get pretty intense. To calm us down a little I reminded us that, since we’ve been married, every time we’ve had an unexpected expense or mishap that God has provided - almost to the dollar. Sunday afternoon comes around and we receive a huge gift (huge in both amount and degree of unexpectedness). Not that we’ve been able to put a specific price on the different in living costs that the drop in hours would amount to but, pretty much before we had a chance to get worked up about it, God swoops in to remind us that he invented money and we will never go without, in 24 hours no less. Isn’t that awesome? : )

Next an introspective snippet. I am a total jerk when it comes to receiving gifts. For some reason I never made it out of elementary school in regards to my gift getting mentality. People who mean well but give not completely accurate gifts get almost zero points with me. Somehow I manage to believe that I genuinely deserve exactly what I want. The gift could go in the garbage and I literally wouldn’t give a pile of fecal matter. What the hell is wrong with me? How do I expect people to read my mind? These are people who love me and have spent time, energy, and money trying to figure out something to wrap and prepare as an undeserved gift for me. And how do I respond? I kick them in the emotional groin. If I’ve ever done that to you - I’m sorry. I really am. I know what it’s like to give a gift to someone you don’t know very well but want badly to show appreciation to. Which is why I think I’m a jerk. And by the way, if for some crazy reason you still feel like ever getting me something after reading this, I have a wish list at Amazon.com that contains exact things that I really do want. Hopefully, God isn’t done with me yet and will fix some of this sin nature.

Alright, here’s my 2007 retrospection: The Good Times and the Bad Times.

BAD
- Losing my wallet during our move to TN and using a ziploc bag instead for a week. Want to know a sure fire way to get people to instantly lose respect for you? Pull out a ziploc bag with your debit card, DL, etc. when you go to pay for something.
- Having to live in, what felt like, the smallest apartment ever in Tallahassee. You know it’s bad when you throw clean clothes in the dirty laundry just because you don’t have anywhere to put them away.
- You know, I really can’t think of that much “bad” stuff that’s happened.

GOOD
- Getting accepted into a freakin’ sweet grad school that I absolutely love. Getting in-state tuition for said grad school. Having an awesome class full of cool people to study with. Being on my way to getting a Masters.
- Getting promoted several times at the bank - right before I quit, of course : )
- Being in the most awesome band ever. I could go on for a LONG time on this one but I won’t. Suffice it to say that it’s completely worth it.
- Not working for almost two months. Man, summer never felt so good.
- Getting a MacBook. Yes, I’m an Apple addict and I have a problem.

To the (maybe) two people who read this: I hope you had an awesome year and that 2008 holds some crazy revelations about God for you. I’d love to hear what you consider your best/worst moment or event of the past calendar year was. And if you haven’t yet, check our Myspace page (Myspace.com/CollinDerrick) for a gig near you in Jan.  We’ll be playing in about nine cities in the south east (TN, NC, SC and GA) so come out to a show and enjoy some good rock music.

The insanity of final projects is now behind me.  Exams are not yet complete but they are far less worrisome than final projects.  Seem I’m getting caught up on everything that’s happened in the past few months weeks I’m posting some vids that will hopefully brighten your end-of-semester existence.

The Gibson Guitar Robot is freaking awesome and apparently goes on sale tomorrow.  All of those things that I find wearisome about string changing/tuning are now automated by a robot.  Gotta love it.  Also, Gibson has been having some fun making video spoofs with their robot, like this one for “Psycho”.  Enjoy.

The crazy time that is the end of a semester is upon us. I am taking this one brief fleeting moment for a long overdue post. Hopefully, it brings some sunshine to your day.

http://www.cnet.com/windows-vista.html
Check this one out before it gets shut down. Mac has placed a Vista dis ad on CNET’s Vista page. Better check it out before it gets taken down. (via GarageSpin, here’s the youtube link, just in case they removed it already - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysHSDiiuWWE)

http://www.xsunderground.com/thechilde/
This website, apparently, hasn’t been updated in about six years. Honestly, it should stay the same forever. Isn’t great how the Internet can come back to haunt us? (via independentmail.com’s best of the web)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIMGPlH4XPo
I found this one the Internets a while back. It is, quite possibly, the most painful interview I’ve ever seen. It’s Sigur Ros being interviewed on NPR. I dare you, as I was dared, to watch to the end. Watch with friends if possible.

Good luck on the rest of the semester and come see us rock out on Thursday at Ground Zero in Spartanburg.

I am an extraordinarily blessed guy. I haven’t been here long at all but already I’ve learned a wealth of information and gotten to see some amazing stuff. Like today, for instance, I got to sit in on a session at a professional studio called The Sound Kitchen. You should check the link for their roster of clients. Yes, there were platinum albums hanging on the walls in the hallway. Yes, there was a sheik chill room / kitchen. Yes, it was amazing. And yes, I got pictures for you to marvel at the cool opportunities God is giving me.

One of our teachers “canceled” our once-a-week class because he had an opportunity to record a big band at the Sound Kitchen. He turned it into a kind of field trip for us.

We started off the trip with a stop a Wendy’s and, since I’m a ham, I couldn’t resist.

The high-class entrance to the studio.

The aforementioned lounge area.

The magical control room in the “Big Boy” studio.

The required console (custom API Legacy Plus, 80 inputs) shot.

Logo proof of the custom design on the end of the console and stereotypical lava lamp.

More console porn.

Me badly faking mixing on the board : ) I had to be careful not to actually touch something during the recording process or tick off my teacher who was kinda busy doing real work while I was taking pictures.

The beautiful Pro Tools HD and G5 heart of the beast.

The Pro Tools monitor that says, if you can make it out, “Pro Tools HD 7.3.1″ in the top left corner. Those tiny letter and numbers cost so very much money.

Our crack team of graduate students adeptly and enthusiastically observing the session.

A broad shot of the, as they say in the biz, “tracking space”.

Some very cool diffusers/absorbers that did a mind boggling good job of isolating the piano while an entire big band played.

And the tracking space from the other side.

Did I mention how blessed I am? : )

Sorry to be out of touch for a while. Such is the way of the blog during intense weeks of school : ) Thought you might want to know that Amazon.com just started offering DRM-free music downloads today and the albums are generally a dollar cheaper (sometimes more) than iTunes. For those of you who aren’t aware of DRM (Digital Rights Management), it’s the stuff that will only let you play your iTunes downloads on other devices or more than five computers. It’s the same kind of stuff that won’t let you copy your DVD’s onto your computer as well. They say it’s there to prevent piracy but it has little to no effect on that industry and instead functions primarily as a way to force you to buy a digital version of the movies/music you already own. DRM-free means you can play it on whatever portable Mp3 player you want and on as many computers as you want.

I think I’m switching download loyalties : )