Two of my favorite bands, At the Drive-in and Refused, are reuniting to play Coachella.  Hopefully both of them will tour because I don’t want to fly to California – or pay for Coachella tickets – to see them.  I go back and forth on how I feel about these bands doing reunions because a) it’s viewed as heretical for a punk band to reunite to cash in, and b) it’s rare for a reunion show to top past performances.  On the other hand, it’s great that I’m going to hopefully get the chance to see two incredibly influential bands and why should it matter that they are reuniting since they both make great music.

Here’s an article that sums it up pretty well.

+ Louis CK Interview

Here’s an interview with comedian Louis CK that’s worth reading.

Speaking about his first encounter with the Conan O’Brien writing team:

Then I was so nervous, and Dino Stamatopoulos and all the other writers were saying, “You’re the new writer here,” and I was like, “I haven’t been hired yet,” and Dino was playing games with me, saying, “Congratulations, you’ve been hired,” and I was like, “I haven’t even been interviewed yet.” I hung out with him while I was waiting, then I hung out with Smigel and Conan, who were in this really weird position, that in two months from now, they were going to be on the air to replace Letterman, a complete unknown replacing this massive…they started pitching ideas to me for their opening, and they had just started talking about this open where Conan’s really excited to go to work. Everybody goes, “Good luck, you’d better be as good as Letterman,” they keep saying that to him and he doesn’t care, and he goes into his dressing room and puts his head in a noose and they knock down the door and he has to go on. He told me he was going to put a gun in his mouth, and I was the new guy, and I said, “Are you really going to do that?” and they were like, “You think that’s too dark?” and I said, “You can’t do that, that’s vicious, that’s really hard for people to take.” I talked them out of it, and it was like they were asking me for permission. “Really, is it too much?” “Yeah, guys, that’s crazy.” A gun in the mouth, Jesus.

 + Pianos/Xerxes & Pianos/Touche Tours Announced

So we announced two tours today.  One with Xerxes in Canada and the northeastern US and the other with Touche Amore & Goodtime Boys in Europe.  I’ll post the Europe dates when they are finalized.

Pianos/Xerxes Tour Dates:

Feb. 24 – The Studio at Webster Hall – New York City
Feb. 25 – The Space – Hamden, Ct.
Feb. 26 – 242 Main St. – Burlington, Vt.
Feb. 28 – Cafe L’ Agitee – Quebec City, Quebec
Feb. 29 – L’escogriffe – Montreal, Quebec
March 1 – Mavericks – Ottawa, ON
March 2 – Hard Luck – Toronto, ON
March 3 – The Mansion House – St. Catharines, ON
March 4 – Lounge @ London Music Hall – London, ON
March 6 – Sugar City – Buffalo, NY
March 7 – Carabar – Columbus, OH
March 8 – Bangarang’s – Covington, Ky.
March 9 – Smiling Moose – Pittsburgh, Pa.
March 10 – Altoona Masonic Temple – Altoona, Pa.

+ Arcade Fire – Sprawl II

Watching this video makes me want to go back and listen to The Suburbs.  Definitely an album that I slept on.

+ Pianos Stuff

Our album leaked a month ago so I may as well post it up here.  Hope you enjoy it.  If you feel guilty for stealing the food from our mouths and from the mouths of our children by downloading it, or just want to buy it on vinyl – go HERE.

Someone posted a FLAC (very high quality) version HERE which is kind of cool.  But if you are short on file space download the mp3 version HERE.

Lukas Hodge also made a pretty cool video for the opening track “I’ll be Damned” which you can view HERE.

Koji covered Wagon Wheel by Bob Dylan/Old Crow Medicine Show at a venue in South Carolina and had the majority of the crowd singing along with him.  I decided not to record that performance and now I’m kicking myself for it.

To make up for my mistake I taped Koji playing his song Minute Eight during a very intimate house show performance in Melbourne, Florida.  Enjoy.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Our split with The Saddest Landscape is finally out.  We’re really happy with the way the vinyl turned out.  The etching looks incredible.  Thought I’d post it up for download.  If you would like to purchase the vinyl (limited to 600 w/ 18×24″ poster) you can do so through Just Say No! Records HERE.

Download:  The Saddest Landscape/Pianos Become the Teeth – Split 9″

In other exciting personal news: Pianos will be touring Europe in April with Suis La Lune!

+ Pansori – Summer EP

The always-excellent music blog ChugLife posted Pansori’s Summer EP.  I suspect they will get huge if/when they release a full length.  For fans of early thursday, envy, iwouldsetmyselfonfireforyou etc.  They’re playing a show in Baltimore this weekend at CCAS with an amazing lineup: Hostage Calm(!!! new album rules so hard), Transit, Big Kids, 1994!, Snowing, Pansori.

+ El Guincho – Bombay

NSFW!  BOOBIES + Indie Electronic pop + vintage muted color filters + creepy bits + nice transitions = a confusing but very enjoyable music video.

+ Tartine Bread

I like this new trend of beautifully shot trade/craft related videos that are popping up on the web.  Baker Chad Robertson shares his knowledge/promotes his new book/tells you why he loves bread so much.  I actually like this video more – detailing the process of creating ink – but it’s been posted on every corner of the internet already.

+  Andy was kind enough to post a short blog about what’s taking so long with the splits.  We apologize to anyone who pre-ordered.

+  And finally, tomorrow we leave for a short 4 day tour with our friends Touche Amore.  Dates are posted HERE.  Come hang!

I’m typing this while hanging out in my air conditioned apartment, laying in a bed with clean sheets and resting my head on a pillow that isn’t caked with dirt and cat hair.  Life rules at the moment.

Tour is fun because of the uncertainty that goes along with it.  Not knowing what the show will be like, what kind of people you’ll encounter or where the night will end is a liberating feeling that you don’t often get to experience when you work a 9 to 5.  You are given the slightest bit of control over your daily destiny and it is up to you and your band mates to figure out how you’re going to eat, where you’re going to sleep, who’s going to drive, etc.

Which leads to my favorite aspect of touring…

The best thing about touring is the underlying sense of comradeship that your band develops because you are constantly faced with shitty situations that you have to pull together to get through.  When you are on the road with a a person who is literally within an arm’s reach most of the time you had better love that person or be prepared to have a crappy time.  After spending so much close-quarters time with these people you develop a different kind of friendship.  The power of shared experiences I guess.  Through thick and thin etc etc blahblahblah.  I’m lucky to be in a band with these people.

And, lastly, touring reminds you that there are so many genuinely kind people out there who will not hesitate to lend a helping hand.

Aside from a few minor van troubles, tour has been going well.  We only have 8 days left.  It’s weird looking back on some of the earlier shows of tour and realizing that they weren’t that long ago even though it feels like months have passed between now and then.

Since I last updated we played a couple of shows with Touche Amore – one in LA on the 4th of July and one at the Che Cafe on the 6th.  I love watching people lose their shit when a band they loves starts playing and every time I’ve seen Touche play kids lose their minds.

+ Stoked to get home and play this.

+ I’ve been really missing drinking coffee for the past month and this video/recipe from Cool Hunting is giving me a coffee boner.

+ Stoner idea comes to life: Dude lives in a house built of Legos.

+ Just found The Reptillian’s new album Full Health online.  Haven’t listened to it yet, but I expect good things based on seeing them live.  Nicest dudes.

Download The Reptillian – Full Health.