Autumn in Oregon

Wow... it has been a really long time since I posted a blog.. my apologies. When life is moving this fast, sometimes you just have to try and take it all in and not worry so much about trying to document it. Anyway, for a recap of the places I have traveled and the shows we have played in the last two months, check out the band tour blog a http://thematerial.tumblr.com/

After a long but successful journey across the country with the band in a van, we are happy to be back on the west coast! When we decided to head back, we realized that with no place to live back in San Diego, we needed a plan... We were eager to get back to writing our album so we decided to move up to Salem, OR where we had a place to stay with Roi's wife who moved up here for her new job. I can honestly say this has been one of the best ideas we have had so far! We left Monday, after a week off at home, and a quick stop in San Francisco to see Aaron... 17 hours later, we were here in Oregon!

Now, for years my Dad has always said Oregon was "SO me". After hanging out in Portland everyday at our new practice studio (which by the way, is by far the BEST place we have ever practiced, with cheap rent, a sweet lounge with a fireplace and Guitar Hero games, and with a resume that includes playing host to bands such as Journey, KISS and even Celine Dion!) My dad was right... Oregon IS SO ME. After driving around the country and seeing many different landscapes... this is one of the nicest by far. Don't get me wrong, San Diego is amazing...perfect weather, the beach, and the best Mexican food... but Oregon, Portland specifically, has rainy days, Vegetarian/Vegan friendly food everywhere, a huge respect for the environment and a big community push to protect it, and of course... beautiful trees and autumn leaves. Maybe it's just that I have lived in sunny Southern California my entire life, but I can't get enough of this rainy weather and the beautiful landscape! This is what Fall is SUPPOSED to look like!

Anyway... what's next you ask? Well for once in my extremely well-planned-out life, I am not really sure. I love that. I am really trying to live in the moment these days and appreciate the present. I've realized that in order to truly appreciate the present, you have to quit planning for the future, and enjoy life as it is, right now. So.. as I sit looking out Roi and Ashley's balcony at the orange and red leaves, I am at peace. For the next month, I am going to write our new album with my best friends, record some demos, and go home for the holidays after that. I no longer have a "house" but I do have a lot of loving friends and family, so maybe I won't be "homeless" after all :). January holds big plans, but for now, I am content focusing on 3:28pm on a chilly Saturday afternoon.

Till next time!

Co

PS. We went to the Salem Farmer's Market today and got pumpkins! Stay tuned for pictures of that :)

We made it to the east coast!

On our way up to New Jersey... this last week has been a blur. The shows in FL were small but fun, and Swayze's in GA was pretty awesome, but then the car broke down... oh well, it is to be expected. Anyway it is fixed now and all is well :) I am super excited for the shows in NY and Toronto, we are going to get to see Niagra Falls! I can't wait!

I hate to be this lazy... but typing in a moving vehicle is making me car sick sooooo... to get caught up (and watch some pretty awesome tour videos) just go check out the band blog, it gets updated more regularly anyway :) I swear I won't abandon you forever blog!

http://thematerial.tumblr.com

Monumen-TOUR

Sorry it has been awhile there bloggers...

Today we are in College Station Texas, the home of Texas A&M University. We got in super late last night after spending the day in Dallas. Before Dallas was OKC, and before OKC was New Mexico, and before that was Phoenix, and before that was Flagstaff... okay I vow never to wait this long between blogs :)

Anyway, the last few shows have been small but awesome with the groups of devoted fans that makes coming all this way totally worth it.

In Flagstaff, AZ we hung out with our friends in the band "Fight the Quiet" and stayed with them. Unfortunately Primos vegetarian hot dogs was closed that day (single tear :( haha). The next day we went down and spent a few days with our friend Andrea and her new roomies! We sure love visiting Dre, it feels like home! It was so nice to be able to sleep in one place for a couple nights in a row. Before the show, we were treated to an awesome lunch with our friends Maria, Angela, and Victoria! We are still shocked sometimes by how generous and supportive our fans are. We ate at Pei Wei Diner and had tofu pad thai....yum!!

The show was one of the best ones yet. Everyone was rocking out and singing the words to our songs! Pretty soon I no longer cared that it was 110 degrees outside...eek! After the show some fans took us to a British pub and bought us a round... we love our fans!

After leaving Phoenix we went to Albuquerque. The venue was totally sketchy... we were greeted by the shirtless, shoeless owner, beer in hand. haha. The guy was super nice and friendly though. Despite the small attendance the most important fans were there, including our friend Taryn who bought each of us a Starbucks gift card! That girl is so amazing. After the show we went with her and her friends to a diner and had a 1am breakfast. We drove straight through the night to Oklahoma City and woke up in a Starbucks parking lot. After taking a tour shower in the bathroom, the barista asked us if we were in a band. Haha how could he guess?? Turns out he was in a band too and offered us a place to stay that night. The show went really well and the people that worked at Bora Bora all bought tees shirts and a few rounds for the band. The fans there too were so cool!

After the OKC show, we went and checked out the memorial for the OKC bombing. It was so surreal, especially at night. The monument marks the spot of where the building once stood, and there is a chair for each person who died in the bombing that sits lit on a hillside. It is a very sad but very beautiful place.

After staying with our new Starbucks musician friends, we left for Dallas, TX. Sure enough, everything really IS bigger in Texas! We found a crazy truck stop BUC-EES haha... you just have to see it to understand. It's a tour stop paradise! The show was fun, we played acoustically and got to hang out with some super supportive fans. After the show we hung out at Guitar Center and visited the JFK Memorial with the band we are touring with called "Shut up and Deal". It was nice to finally get to know the guys and spend some time with them. We went and got ice cream downtown, real Blue Bell ice cream! Yummm. Then we started our journey here, to College Station. Can't wait for the show!

Portland Oregon.... My new favorite city...

Today we spent our day off in Portland. Portland is pretty much the best place ever. Not only are the people environmentally friendly, but the streets are lined with vegetarian friendly cafes and restaurants. It's great!

We started the day by celebrating Roi's birthday at Sweetpeas, a little vegan bakery and enjoyed seitan sandwiches and vegan pasteries... all "cruelty free" and organic. MMMmmm. Then we went to a Vegan tattoo parlor where Roi fixed up his tattoo. Then we just enjoyed all the many small shops and met lots of friendly people... sorry San Diego... but I may have to relocate to Portland for a while when this tour is over!

Tomorrow is the first show of the tour in Washington... time to pack up!

xoxo

Co

Salem, OR... we made it!

22 hours later.... we made it to Salem, OR!

So what should have been a 16 hour drive turned into a 22 hour drive! It is okay though.. we saw a lot of cool things along the way!

We turned in our keys to both our apartment and our studio on Sunday, and hit the road around 9pm on Sunday night. Monday morning, we were just getting up towards Lake Shasta where I got to reminisce about when I was a kid and used to go houseboating with my family. (Seeing all the beautiful trees makes me want to go back there so badly!) Just around the lake there was an old gas station with some crazy decor. One of the employees there told us about Dusmeir Falls, so we stopped and saw the coolest waterfall!

A few hours and pit stops later, we made it to Salem and are hanging out with Roi's wife Ashley in their awesome new townhouse! Tomorrow we are off for a day trip to Portland before we go up to Washington State University for the first show of the tour!

Until then,

Co

In case you don't have a Flash Player...

Okay guys, so it has come to my attention that not everyone can view our new www.myspace.com/thematerial layout, or our new www.wearethematerial.com layout because of Flash (you must have the latest edition of Flash in order to view our pages). So... for all of you in need of an update, I decided to post most of the dates here, so check them out! (Some dates are still being confirmed, so check back periodically :)

August 26, 2009 | Washington State University - Pullman, WA

August 28, 2009 | Why Sound - Logan, UT

August 28, 2009 | Hot Topic - Logan, UT

August 29, 2009 | Velour - Provo, UT

August 30, 2009 | White Dove Cafe - Flagstaff, AZ

August 31, 2009 | Hot Topic - Scottsdale, AZ

September 1, 2009 | Modern Cultures - Yuma, AZ

September 2, 2009 | Chyro Arts - Phoenix, AZ

September 3, 2009 | Bleeding Eardrum - Albuquerque, NM

September 4, 2009 | Bora Bora - Oklahoma City, OK

September 5, 2009 | Bills Records - Dallas, TX

September 6, 2009 | The Stafford - Bryan, TX

September 8, 2009 | Alabama Music Box - Mobile, AL

September 9, 2009 | Transitions Gallery - Tampa, FL

September 10, 2009 | Solid Sound Studios - Pompano Beach, FL

September 11, 2009 | Jackrabbits - Jacksonville, FL

September 12, 2009 | Swayzes - Marrietta, GA

September 13, 2009 | The Annex - Florence, SC

September 17, 2009 | Ground Zero - Alenstown, NH

September 18, 2009 | Knapps Underground - Bennington, VT

September 19, 2009 | The Space - Hamden, CT

September 20, 2009 | Church - Boston, MA

September 22, 2009 | The Crazy Donkey - Farmingdale, NY

September 24, 2009 | Big Pop - Toronto, Canada

September 25, 2009 | The Modern Exchange - Southgate (Detroit), MI

September 26, 2009 | Glitch Fest - Lafayette, IN

September 27, 2009 | Korova - Morris, IL

September 29, 2009 | Swing State - Lake Villa, IL

October 2, 2009 | Library - St Louis, MO

October 3, 2009 | Coffee House & Deli - Normal, IL

October 4, 2009 | The Industry - Iowa City, IA

October 5, 2009 | Sidewinders - Lincoln, NE

October 6, 2009 | Knights of Columbus - Norfolk, NE

October 7, 2009 | Pj's Pub - Manhattan, KS

October 9, 2009 | Gary's Spot - Tomball, TX

ALSO... if you want to check out The Material blog, which I have to admit, it gets updated more frequently than this one... check it out!

http://thematerial.tumblr.com/

xoxo

Co

Aug

On the road...again

So it is Thursday night, and we found some free internet.. so I thought I would give you an update. For the past few days we have been at Warped Tour hustling our butts off trying to sell CDs. Today I met the guys from NOFX and Kevin Lyman, as well as a TON of new fans and friends. Good times. It is cool to meet a ton of other bands like us, who are out there just following the tour, working hard and promoting. It is hard to stay positive sometimes about Warped when we tried (and failed) to get on it this year.... but we've met a lot of bands in the same boat as us this trip, and there is a lot of band camaradarie going which is cool. We are just staying positive and doing our best to get our name out there... we sold a bunch of CDs to you guys out there today, and everyone was bummed we weren't playing.. so hopefully it will happen next year :)

Yesterday at Fresno Warped it was 103 degrees... ugh. It was gross. Today was amazing in Mountain View at a beautiful breezy high of 76 degrees. Last night we drove to San Francisco to stay with our good friend Aaron. He moved up here a few months ago to go to film school and San Diego misses him dearly. Anyway, we crashed at Aaron's last night and are going to do so again tonight. We just got back here after a wonderful dinner with our good friends Tony and Kelsey. They are an amazing couple who has traveled the whole world with nothing but a backpack and a smile. I hope to be able to follow in their footsteps one day. Anyway, they treated us to some amazing veggie pizza, and now we are back in San Fran, feeling comfy cozy.

We made enough money to get to the next city and have a few meals, so for now, we are doing pretty well :) Till next time!

Co

The weekend in review....

How could I forget to mention my amazing weekend in the last blog?

Okay, here is a quick overview, because it was too awesome to forget about...

So I, being the lucky girl I am, was blessed with an amazing husband who helped me start my weekend early on Thursday. Jon drove my friend Nicole and I to The W Hotel where we started the weekend with a few free Svedka Vodka and Cranberry drinks. The event was for 944 magazine where my amazingly talented friend Nicole is a writer. We mingled with the other editors but for the most part, it was just a great time to catch up with Nicole about her recent wedding and just have a girl's night out.

Friday was spent with the above mentioned amazing husband at our favorite sushi place called Zen 5 Sushi, which isn't the most fancy sushi place in town, but certainly the best in my opinion.

Saturday was the aforementioned and dreaded garage sale, but we rewarded ourselves to pizza and beer at Newport Pizza and walked along the boardwalk, appreciating our beautiful beach town one last time before we enter the hot midwest on tour.

Saturday night was the kicker! My friend and former roomate Audrey hooked Jon and I up with some tickets to see The Sounds, Panic! At the Disco, and NO DOUBT! As you all know, I used to be Gwen's biggest fan and still credit her for my musical inspiration. It was a great time catching up with Audrey and seeing the best female fronted band of our time.

All in all it was a great weekend! I am glad I got to hang out with friends I unfortunately don't get to see as often as I would like. Looking forward to November when I get to do all of it again.

XOXO

Co

...and the countdown begins!

It is officially here. The one week countdown to the end of my 9 month stretch of normalcy. Friday is our official tour kick-off show at Soma... Saturday we move into storage, and Tuesday of next week, we hit the road (I guess that makes it more like a one week and one day countdown, but who is really counting :).

It is funny how comfortable you can get in your daily routine. Even when you complain day in and day out about a job or the endless list of daily chores it takes to keep a clean home, it is still hard to leave. I think that just as humans long for adventure and new experiences, they also long for a place to call home. That place where you can crawl into bed and feel safe. In one week I will be rid of my little apartment in North Park and officially moved into our tour van with four boys, one carry on sized suitcase, and one green trusty sleeping bag (yes, I have tried the air mattress on the last tour and can tell you that it was way too much of a process).

Anyway, I am excited about it. Yes, it is hard to leave the comforts of home, but I think I have decided that I have a few good years of a nomadic existence left in me, and hey, might as well do it now before I have kids, a house payment etc, right? It might sound scary but I've done it once before and wouldn't trade that time for the world. I got to see the country for the first time, meet a million fans and even experience what some call "Southern Hospitality". I am excited to do it all over again, and hopefully each city will bring out the fans we met last time, plus a whole new group of fans.

So, as I shed what was left of my "stuff" Saturday morning at our little garage sale, I feel liberated and ready to embark on a new journey.

See you at the show :)

Co

This is my life...

Well hello there...

Wow. I finally did it. I finally created a blog of my own. My first blog ever. I know what you are thinking and yes, I technically have a blog via my band, The Material, but I can't really claim ownership of that. The truth is, most things Material-web based are Jon's creations. It's not that I am incapable... I think I just got lazy when I realized I would probably never be as computer savvy as he is, and so I usually just let him take the wheel.

So, why now? Once upon a time, I used to be a writer, poet, artist etc. Then I started a band. Don't get me wrong, I love song writing, and my band, but writing non-musical stuff came first, before music. I guess that is why I am excited to finally start writing again, straight up journal style. None of this eternally struggling to find rhyming words...or counting syllables... just thoughts. Stories. Ideas.

I remember the first story I wrote was called "The Summer of the Spies". Yup, it was a winner. Haha. Think Harriet the Spy goes suburban. I think I was eight years old and my best friend had just moved to Hawaii. She and I used to have so much fun ruling the neighborhood on our red banana seat bikes, spying on the neighbors and doing all the fun things usual eight-year-old girls do. Of course, when she moved, I was miserable, and my Mom, being a teacher, always encouraged us to write journals. I guess that is how it all started. So thank you Mom for always pushing me into doing educational activities during summer when most kids were only thinking about ice cream trucks and cannon balls. She is the best.

And art you ask? Before music, before writing, came art. I must have been six when I asked for my first easel. It was the kind with a white board on one side, and to this day I blame my old sister for it's early demise when I found permanent marker drawings on it's once clean, ivory smooth surface. (It's okay Ang, I forgive you :) The only people who know about this early love of mine are the members of my family who continue to tease me about the barre I used to wear in first grade. Yes, every artist must own a fancy hat such as the barre, and thus, I summoned my amazingly creative Aunt Shelly to create one for me. I still have it to this day.

So... I guess the question is, why did I start this blog in the first place?

I started singing at nine and I think from the moment I stepped on stage for the very first time I fell in love with the feeling of performing. Performing is the one and only thing that gets me through all the other tough parts about being a struggling musician. Particularly the song-writing part. As I said before, it's not that I dislike song writing... its just that I suffer from a severe bout of writer's block, on more than an occasional basis. There is no worse feeling than the lack of creativity. I find that the longer I stay in a "normal" environment... you know, a work place, a stale apartment, etc. I start to occupy my mind with things like grocery lists and check books, and I have a really hard time getting back to my roots.... to the things that make me happy... to my once totally creative and beautiful imagination. When I can't tap into that, I can't find anything to write about, other than the serious lack of creativity that I find in my day to day mundane routine. I can't help but feel depressed by it. Sure, I know what you are thinking... I have a TON of stuff going on, most times, too much for me to handle, but even the most unique and busy routines are still routine, none-the-less.

Take today for example. I have one day alone in my apartment... I woke up with a migraine and it totally threw off my routine. I spent half my morning trying to just figure out what to DO. It is such a rare occasion that I actually have some amount of time allotted for absolutely nothing... so what do I do? I start pacing back and forth and writing down all the little things that I need to do to fill this time productively. Yes, I get that from my Mom. She is a brilliant woman who knows how to do ten things at once. The problem is, finding time to just sit and observe the world around you. Finding happiness in simple things. I could have probably gotten a creative spark from the multi-colored floor of my apartment balcony (that has been splattered from my most recent paintings), but instead I spent an hour trying to match it's old color to paint it back so I could get my deposit back when we get out of this place in a few weeks. (Note to self - scratch that task off the list). How do we just.... be?

Well, anyway, I guess I am trying to figure that out. I am excited now that I finally decided to ditch the to-do list and start writing down my thoughts. I am hoping that it will help me to tap into that creative mind again so that I can write some awesome songs for the next album. In a few weeks I will be on the road with the band again, seeing and smelling and experiencing and meeting a million new people and things... But for now, I am going to try and find time to focus on the present, and see what I can come up with :)

Co