We just played our third show and I was absolutely stunned how well my band played tonight. Will you please shower them with home made cookies and cracked DVDs?? They are SO bad ass. It is late and I need to sleep. See you soon.
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Oh let’s go on a garden tour! Via I Pick My Nose.

Please don’t buy MCB on ebay unless you absolutely have to. I will have it on this tour.

Wow, could the new Lars von Trier movie be a disaster?

I care about the NBA playoffs more than you’ll ever know.

Okay time to go time to go.

We are coming to your town. Tour officially started last night in Merced, CA. It was epic. I am very inspired by this new line up, Matthias, Ian and I are playing as a quintet adding Sylvian on guitar and Jamie on bass.

We need merch people in the following cites: Pittsburgh, Iowa City, St Augustine, Orlando, Gainesville and DC. We’ll comp you and a guest in to the show and ply you with either: a) organic juice blends (yummy) or b) alcohol. How could you lose? Email adam@billions.com if you want to do it. Thanks everyone!!!

Much info today about the new record! First, if you pre-order Romanian Names now on CD or LP, you’ll get an immediate download of the album right then and there. How’s that?! Good, right? If you’re one of the first 100, you’ll also receive a limited-edition, letterpressed wallet containing a small snippet of analog tape, which contains unused music from the master recording of Romanian Names, straight off the Tiny Telephone cutting-room floor. The music on the tape is yours to do with as you will. If you come up with something interesting, please do send it over for inspection!
 
Pre-order: Romanian Names CD & LP.
 
Here’s a second song from the album you can download now for free. "Too Much Time" is one of my favorites from the record, we did a great version of this one with the M*M Orchestra at Great American earlier this year, but this studio version is really holding up for me.
 
Download: "Too Much Time"
 
Finally, lots of new tour dates are up, and we are so happy to announce that The Tallest Man on Earth will be sharing the bill with us most every date of the tour. We’re also doing shows with the Morning Benders. Tickets are on sale now for all of the shows. We’re bringing a 5-piece band, and rehearsals are starting to sound fuckin’ good.

I’m spinning records at Amoeba in San Francisco this Saturday, April 18 from 4-5pm for Record Store Day (that better be a national holiday). I’m right between Kelley Stoltz and Aesop Rock! Wow, that is cool.

Other than pulling clovers in my garden (please don’t second Isa and tell me they have a right to be there), I’ve been in heavy rehearsals for the next tour. I will miss being on stage alone with my ’52 Gibson but there is SO MUCH power playing in a quintet. All that low end, distortion, brutal drums and swirling counterpoint… Yeah, I’ll enjoy that too.

It’s cold and rainy in northern Indiana on our day off. Happy that Brandon, tour manager of no equal, pricelined the shit out of a Marriott, and we are sprawled out in semi-luxury. The tour has been a revelation to me: I’ve been deeply inspired watching Darnielle play and sing up close again, and thrilled to be spending so much time with both JD and Brandon.

In an hour or so we’ll follow Veg Out and hit Taj Indian. Next stop is Portage Theater in Chicago, and if I don’t see you then there are a few more shows to come. I really don’t want this tour to end.

I’ve been playing songs from the upcoming album on this trip. Here’s the album-version of "Fetal Horses" for you to download. Romanian Names is out on Dead Oceans May 19.

Download: "Fetal Horses"

We just posted our record release show in San Francisco!!! It’s at the Rickshaw on May 19 with one of our favorite bands (they’ll be announced soon). Tickets are here. We’ll be doing a free show at Easy Street in Seattle as well.  Tons of shows will be showing up in the next couple of weeks.

The line up for the May tour is:
JV: Guitar, Vocals
Ian Bjornstad: Wurlitzer, Moog
Matthias Bossi: Drums
Sylvain Carton: Guitar
James Riotto: Bass

I am super excited about this band. See you out there!!!

Three recent slide shows:

John and Isabelle in France
Isa and I spent three weeks in FR, mostly in the absurdly beautiful Mediterranean town of Collioure and this sleepy place called Paris. It’s the first time I’ve shot photos off tour.

Spring 2008 EU Slide Show
Europe is cool. EUROPE IS FUCKING COOL!!!

Spring 2008 US Slide Show
After supporting Malkmus and the JIcks in the East, we set out to claim some of those student activity fees.

We toured with St. Vincent once. It was wonderful. Elizabeth Weinberg took some nice photos. Looking through them made me want to tour again. I might have posted them before, I can’t remember.

I just posted the Sasquatch Festival show. Tons of new stuff coming at some point but I’m too obsessed with my iPhone to get it together.

In the fall of 2007 I played shows with Bishop Allen and Bowerbirds. I was already in love with both bands. By the end of the tour I had fallen hard for their label, Dead Oceans. I had known Phil for a few years and I deeply respected his taste in music. When he joined the Secretly Canadian / Jagjaguwar family, I started to pay close attention. I am honored to be in the game with these people! They are passionate, aware, loyal and SERIOUS.

God DAMN! That Magik show was unreal, being in the center of all those strings, and horns, and woodwinds… and the choir. FUCK! They all played with so much style and power. Well we’re sure to bring it back, how could we not? Thanks for coming to this show. To those that couldn’t make it, we’ll have some audio and video stuff to post soon.
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The super bowl was amazing!!!!