Shows n shit

My life is busy the next few months.

Bent Life Tour:

12.28 Cedar Falls, IA @ 1108
12.29 Springfield, IL @ Black Sheep Cafe
12.30 Anderson, IN @ House Show
01.01 Moline, IL @ Showzin
01.02 Milwaukee, WI @ Borg Ward
01.03 Minneapolis, MN @ Gnarwhal House *Early All Ages*
01.03 Minneapolis, MN @ Memory Lanes *Late 21+*
01.04 Lincoln, NE @ Knickerbockers

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01.06 - 01.09 Chicago trip for Weezer's "Blinkerton" Tour

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01.10 Armada, Bent Life, Trench Digger & Gag Reflex @ The Manor in Omaha, NE

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01.16 Lord Green, Feral Hands & Gag Reflex @ The Manor in Omaha, NE

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01.21 Sick Of It All, Alpha and Omega, Outbreak & Bent Life @ Knickerbockers in Lincoln, NE

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Bent Life tour:

02.18 Omaha, NE Gravemaker, Bent Life & TBA @ TBA
02.19 Waterloo, IA Gravemaker, Expire, Bent Life & TBA @ Amvets Post 19
02.20 Louisville, KY
02.21 St Louis, MO
02.22 Wichita, KS

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Bent Life & Feeding Lies Midwest / Southern Tour 3.11 - 3.18

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Somehow going to write songs for a new band Cody, Vic and I are in and record a Koizumi 10" in between all of this. What?

This Is Killing You

Started demoing tracks for an upcoming Koizumi release on Sunday night. It's going to be anywhere between a 10 and 12 song 7" or 10" titled "This Is Killing You." Plans right now are to release it in February or March on Pretzel City Records. Recording is going to begin sometime in December or January. I'll be recording all of the songs in Omaha, Nebraska with Chris Atkins (Akita Ken, Your Face, Chris The Whale, Parachutes) who will also be producing and playing some instruments on the record. It will be recorded @ Zach Short Studios.

It's going to be an acoustic record. If you've seen Koizumi then you've probably heard half of the songs live. The other half are songs we were working on and newer songs I've wrote. Here is the tentative track listing (most of the song titles will change...I'm real bad at naming songs)....

01. It's Personal
02. Bear Creek
03. Handcuffed
04. Christine
05. Happy
06. The Wonder Years
07. Golden Sower
08. Party Plex
09. Jubilee
10. Half Way To Mid Life
11. Disconnect
12. Dig My Grave

Keep your eyes and ears open! Check the corner for updates!

End of everything

This week has been an interesting one for sure. First after 5 and a half years Hercules broke up. Then right after our 3 week tour I started jamming with Prob With Doom, a cover band myself, Vic and Cody started to play the last Ghost House. We jammed everyday this week and it never really hit me what exactly we were doing it for. I didn't really understand until after all of the music was over tonight that it was the last Ghost House show ever.

Ever since I stuck a bottle in my ass as I stood naked in a pool of my own sweat with my guitar over my shoulder on August 10th, 2007 Ghost House has been a huge part of my life. I know I never lived there, but I booked and attended dozens of shows there since I was 19 years old. I can't believe how fast the last 6 years of my life have gone. It's almost too hard and too depressing to even think about.

Tonight was special. I didn't realize it until after. Metal Kin Kins said it best when he told me "We didn't milk this enough, we need to milk more." I agreed with him completely. Sadly I also agreed with him when he said it was the start of the slow decline. I think we all feel that way. A lot of monumental things have stopped in the last week. I know that sounds conceded of me to say since I was in the group known as Hercules. But I feel we contributed a good amount to Nebraska Hardcore over the last 6 years and really bridged the gap between Omaha and Lincoln.

Ghost House has done the same over the last 3 years. Where are we going to go now? is the question that has been on my mind for the last few hours as I sit here in my bed reflecting on the night and my pissy life. Luckily things aren't dead yet, far from it actually. It's dumb to say with every door that closes another one opens (and it's dumb to say "it's dumb to say") but it's absolutely true. Hercules is over but I have Bent Life to focus on, then when Aaron moves back I have Powerslop and Bent Life to focus on. And with Ghost House gone we can really get Mad Ave up and running. Things will be different, but things wont be over.

I think this winter is going to be a really strange transition period for all of us. We won't have Ghost House to go to anymore which will be really weird. With that being gone I see Omaha and Lincoln seeing each other a little less for a few months. But Mad Ave is in the process of setting up some benefit shows. Our goal is to be up and running by early January 2011. I don't see why we can't get this done. Thank you to everyone who has contributed time or money to Mad Ave so far, you don't even know how much we appreciate it.

I left Ghost House tonight with a grim outlook on the future. But after a few cups of coffee and some Famous Monsters / American Psycho I think I see that this was bound to happened. The fact that even with these things ending we still have so much to look forward to actually has me really excited about Nebraska DIY/ Punk / Hardcore. After we all adjust I see things becoming awesome again. We'll never re-live the times we've had at Ghost House. I thought after I moved out of Party Plex my life was over. And it really did feel that way for a while. Then new opportunity's arrived and things have been great. I see the same for the future of Nebraska. Down, not out. Life is good. Fuck the winter. Let's keep this going.

I'm glad we still have the drive to keep it going. I've seen things like this ruin people involved in music. I don't see that happening with any of us. I'm ready and ok with being a 35 year old loser still booking and playing shows. Mad Ave 2011. Bent Life 2011. Powerslop 2011. It's going to be a good year.

RIP Ghost House 08.10.2007 - 11.12.2010

Lincoln, Nebraska - home from tour

I decided to wait a few days before doing my tour / Hercules wrap up. I wanted to adjust to real life back in Lincoln before I sat down to try and convey what this tour and this band has meant to me. I want to keep it brief, there's no need for a long explanation. This tour was one of the greatest experiences of my life and I wouldn't have changed a single thing about it except possibly making it 10 times as long. I think we all felt that this was the last one as Hercules so we really enjoyed every possible second.

The last show in Omaha was an insane experience. In 5 and a half years of being in Hercules I've never once just stood still at a show. But Saturday I was motionless the entire time. I spent the show looking at the crowd of friends and strangers in anger, awe and amusement. It was a wild mix of emotions. I couldn't believe the energy in the room, it was something I've never experienced in my life. I could tell people actually cared about what was going on and that really meant a lot to me. Half of the time I had no idea where Tyler was as he was being eaten alive by the sea of people.

It really didn't hit me until our last song that Hercules was over. And it hit me again today while I was at work. I still don't buy it but apparently it's true. I co-founded Hercules a month after I turned 17 years old in 2005. It was a joke. It still was a joke up until Saturday. But if 4 losers from the middle of the country can take a joke as far as we took Hercules I think any kid into punk / hardcore / DIY can do whatever they want in life. I don't want to make it seem like we were more than we were. We were a punk band who had so much help from our friends here at home and around the country.

I really felt Hercules bridged the gap between Omaha and Lincoln and gave us something all we could enjoy together. If it wasn't for this band I wouldn't know most of the people I know today. Things ended rocky like things tend to do but I wouldn't change a thing about the last 5 and a half years of my life. I've seen a lot of places and had a lot of experiences with this band and it's been amazing. I don't plan on stopping any time soon. We're already working on the first Powerslop demo. I realize it will never be the same to people. I figure they'll just want Hercules. But I know we're all fine with that because though we love the people who help us and come to our shows, we've always done Hercules because we love punk rock and touring. Powerslop will be no different. I hope you all enjoy it.

Thanks to everyone for the best time of my life. You all know who you are. I really think the line "Stay like this forever and hold onto your youth" is something that will stick with me all of my years.

Omaha, Nebraska

Last couple of days of tour couldn't have been more fun. I think we all felt that this was the last time we were going out as a group for a while. We're all extra bummed to be home this time. After Chattanooga we drove back up north and played a show in Louisville, Kentucky. We were super late. Early in the day Kurt kept his word and bought us all KFC Buffet. Tyler was up in the driving rotation but ate so much he puked when we were done eating so we had to make some changes to the driving order.

The show is Louisville was really cool. Not many people showed up but it was our last show with Agress & Full Of Hell so we had a good time watching those guys one last time. The promoter was a really cool dude and still helped all of the bands out. Post show we headed to this pizza place where they give bands a free za and soda. It was incredible. I got a random text asking where we were. When I told the mystery texter our friends from California showed up to the joint. They were also playing a show down the street from us. What a small world. It was good seeing those dudes.

Tyler was itching all day to skate the huge 24 hour Loovul' skatepark so he hoped on that quick after pizza. Yesterday we drove up to Chicago to play Summer Camp. The show was AWESOME. We got there and the dudes were all playing the Sims on the wii. The guys at that house rule, they're all way too nice. The show was really awesome too. Saw a lot of Chicago and Omaha friends who now live in Chicago. A ton of people showed up and a lot of really cool local bands played. Kids were getting wild for all of the bands, it was awesome. I really enjoyd Poor Choice & Socially Retarded. Check those bands out!

After a wild show we headed up stairs for some good 80's / 90's jams and some pasta. Sadly we couldn't hang out at the post show party too long because we made the choice to make the long trek back to Omaha. We hoped in the Winnie for our last drive ever in her as Hercules. It was a bitter sweet symphony. We just pulled into town about an hour ago. Aaron and Tyler are sleeping like babies at their place. Mitch and Kurt went to chomp to crash and I'm at my parents house enjoying a cup of coffee with my dad while I do some laundry and some heavy internet surfing.

This tour couldn't have been better. I will do my tour wrap up post tonight or tomorrow after our final show. Please come out and say goodbye friends!

Saturday, November 6th, 2010
@ The Manor (1710 S 29th St Omaha, Nebraska)
All Ages 8:00pm $5

- Hercules
- Lord Green
- Feral Hands
- The Boot Heel
- The Yuppies

We have a 13 song set list we're gonna jam out. Old ones included, don't worry.

Chattanooga, Tennessee

What to say about the last couple of days here. Let me try to remember. My mind is all over the place. Mitch recently got me hooked and addicted to coffee so I've been staying up really late and not thinking too clearly. After our show in Milwaukee we woke up the next day and made a pretty boring / shitty drive to Indianapolis. I spent the entire time watching Season 5 of Dexter and listening to the new and terrible Weezer record "Hurley." Majorly disappointing. We had to deal with dumb fucking traffic about 20 minutes outside of Indianapolis but we finally figured it out and made it to The Dojo.

Our show in Indianapolis was a lot of fun but not many people showed up. We booked it about a week and a half before we played there and apparently the Colts were on Monday night football so I wasn't too broken up about it. We got to play with In The Face of War who after 10 years is breaking up on May 7th, 2011. Pretty wild stuff. We also played with Full Rainbow (formerly The Sorely Trying Days) which is always awesome. After the show we had some incredible diner breakfast then I stayed up late as hell watching The Office.

The next day in Indianapolis we had to get up to make the long trek down to Nashville, Tennessee. After another boring and uneventful drive we finally made it to Nashville and ended up playing a really sweet show at a venue called Little Hamilton. It was a pretty big show and we had a blast. Post show we ate some Waffle House (maybe the 15th time on this tour) and stayed with this really nice dude named Jessie. His roommate busted in the door around 2:30am drunk, stumbling and screaming. Tyler was in the line of fire when this girl yelled "MOVE ASSHOLE" and kicked him in the head. Poor T. Also earlier in this day he was climbing a tree to get a picture taken in front of this huge dinosaur at Dinosaur World and a thorn fell from the tree and cut his eye. He had a terrible night.

Today we had a really short drive to Chattanooga to a show that wasn't slated to start until 10:30pm. A 7 band show. It was at this really sweet house called Anarchitca (get it?) that has been doing shows for 8 years. Blew my mind. The show was AWESOME. A ton of people showed up and the kids were really supportive and got wild for all of the bands. Everyone was wasted. A girl was showing her breasts and making out with other girls so people would donate money to the bands. Thomas hit on a babe for a while, got her number then struck out hard. Some dudes stole another guys keys and chucked them into the forest then kicked his moped over. A lot of sloppy drunkeness. Hard drunk moshing. Jacob Justice had to throw a few people by their hair off of the Agress merch. People had their dogs at the show, it sucked.

We left the show and had the best Waffle House experience ever. Our waitress was wild. She told us she had 8 assault charges, just got back to Chattanooga from running from the law, and was now working 10pm - 3:00pm everyday. Yeah you read that right, 10:00pm at night to 3:00pm the next day. Shit life. Now we're at this house finally where I don't think anyone actually seems to live at. It's now 5:00am eastern standard time and I plan on waking up in 5 hours to go to the gym. Today is our last show with Agress then those boys will continue on to the west coast. We only have 3 more shows left ever. Hope to see the Midwest show up on Saturday!

11.04 Louisville, KY @ Keswick Democratic Club
11.05 Chicago, IL @ Summer Camp
11.06 Omaha, NE @ The Manor

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Last night in Iowa City was insane. We played at this sweet venue called the White Lightning Warehouse. It was a huge Halloween show. The venue was huge and hundreds of people showed up, mostly all in costumes and ready to party. We played 2nd. In between each band these burlesque dancers performed, it was nuts. Our set went really well. We played Live, Laugh, Love which we haven't done in well over a year. It was pretty fun.

A Minor Threat cover band ended the night and they couldn't have been more perfect. The guitar and bass tone were both perfect, Joe Ross did the drumming perfect and they played 14 songs with minimal breaks. It really couldn't have been done better. After the show we were all dead tired. We watched a guy freak out about his car being hit for a while, then we got some pizza, went to the house we were staying at and went to sleep.

We were awoken today at 11:00am to a dude telling us we had to vacate our house because a cable repair man had to do some work. We hoped in the Winnie and made a pretty uneventful drive to Milwaukee. We went to Pizza Shuttle and the dude behind the counter recognized us and decided to hook us up with free pizza, soda and bread sticks. Then while eating he brought us even more free pizza. Such a good experience.

The show in Milwaukee was at the Borg Ward, a really sweet spot. Armada opened up the show and they were really good. They did a few Misfits covers which was real sweet. Agress rocked it out. Our set was fun but really weird. Then Harms Way closed out the show playing a few of their rockers. The show was fun and went by really fast, I think it was over by 9:30. After that we headed back to Pizza Shuttle for more great food. We're now hanging out at the Armada dudes house, watching Zombieland and using the internetz.

Tomorrow we play in Indianapolis, Indiana @ The Dojo w/ In The Face of War & Full Rainbow. I'm real excited to see ITFOW play. Tour is coming to a close and I'm pretty bummed. I hope to see some friends at our last show this Saturday @ The Manor. Come out and buy up our merch, we need money to release a full 63 song Hercules discography on cd. Will hopefully be out early 2011 on Nihilism and Pretzel City Records. We'll also have final tour posters at the last show. Come pick one up!

11.01 Indianapolis, IN @ The Dojo
11.02 Nashville, TN @ Little Hamilton
11.03 Chattanooga, TN @ Anarchtica
11.04 Louisville, KY @ Keswick Democratic Club
11.05 Chicago, IL @ Summer Camp
11.06 Omaha, NE @ The Manor

Cedar Falls, Iowa

Springfield ended up being a fantastic time as always. During the day we went to The Pony Gentleman's Club, a club we're very familiar with. We walked into the club at around 4:00pm. The lights were low, there was no music playing and there was only one dancer in the entire place. When we walked in she seemed to be practicing some moves on a wall. When she stopped, an old man rose from a seat we could not see. It was hilarious. We spent the rest of the time there watching this girl dance in complete silence. Tyler got up on a stage and did a dance himself and I took a shot at announcing behind the booth. It was a pretty interesting time.

The show in Springfield ended up being pretty cool especially considering we booked it really last minute. Post show we got some pizza and soda and enjoyed more zombie movies at our best buddy Warren's house. Today was an absolutely awful drive to Cedar Falls. It ended up being a 9 hour drive, all highway, no food anywhere. I also stayed up until 7:00am and was awoken at 9:00am so that didn't help at all.

The show in Cedar Falls tonight was awesome. It was at 1108 and a lot of kids came out which was really cool. That Build No System band gets better every time I see them. The show went so fast I couldn't even believe it was over. I think we finished up just before 9:30pm which was sweet after a shitty day of driving. We hung out at 1108 for a while then came to Doyle & Addison's house where Addison made us an incredible stir fry and pot stickers meal. We washed it down with a 12 pack of coca cola our main man Jeff Chord bought for us. I'm still full from the meal.

We finally discovered the new Tourette's Guy videos. They. Are. In.Cred.Ible. Do yourself a big favor and check them out if you haven't yet. Now we're lying low enjoying Ace Ventura When Nature Calls. Tomorrow Hercules is practicing at 1108 and teaching Mitch some of our old songs so we can play them for all of you lovely people at our last show Saturday, November 6th @ The Manor. After practice we're going to go see Jackass 3d and I'm hoping to stay in the theater to catch Paranormal Activity 2. Our show is only an hour and a half away and doesn't even start until 10:00pm. It's gonna be a late night. Then on Halloween we're playing @ the Borg Ward in Milwaukee w/ Agress, Armada & Harms Way. Come out!

Tour is coming to a close. Such a good time. I'm typing this with the smallest kitty I've ever seen on my lap.

Downloading season 5 of Dexter. Tour life is better than real life.

Springfield, Missouri

A lot has happened in the last few days. We had a show in San Antonio, TX that looked like it was going to suck. Then out of the blue a good amount of people showed up and the show ended up being a pretty good time. We woke up early as hell the next morning for the first drive in a series of long ass drives. This drive was an 8 hour trek from San Antonio, TX to Baton Rouge, LA. We ended up making really good time and made it to Baton Rouge by 5:00pm. We hung out for a while, ate some food, cruised the LSU campus then finally went back to the Spanish Moon, the venue where the show was at. I was really excited for this show because the line up was Agress, Hercules, Ghastly City Sleep & Thou. The Spanish Moon is a really cool venue near downtown Baton Rouge.

The show started really late, like most shows of this tour have. Agress opened the show up a little after 10:30pm. The crowd was a little weird. Some punkers, some bros, most people choosing to sit at the bar while all of the bands played. People also didn't seem to want to clap between songs for any of the bands. It was really strange. I somehow got sick within a 2 hour period so after we played I took an hour nap while Ghastly City Sleep played. Thou was incredible as always and did a really cool Nirvana cover. Tyler and Mitch stayed at the bar and took advantage of the $1.75 whiskey and cokes offered to the bands.

Post show everyone but Aaron and myself were pretty wasted. Tyler was the drunkest I've ever seen him. He attempted to skateboard so many times, finally stopping when his legs went one way and the board went the other way as he flew in the air and crashed into the Baton Rouge streets. We hung out with the Ghastly City Sleep dudes who told us a lot of crazy Pg. 99 / City Of Caterpillar for a while. Then it was time to go eat. Tyler was too drunk to even walk. He came to the diner for a bit but decided to go back to the van as we gorged ourselves. When we came back to the van all we saw was the van doors open, Tyler's feet dangling out and a huge pile of puke outside the van. We took some great pictures of it.

We got the the apartment we were staying at with a few other bands. We all went inside as Tyler lied in the street, puking on his own hands. We got him into the van to go to sleep. The next morning we woke up and Tyler told us about his crazy night. He ended up getting out of the van and shirtless, he lied in the dirt next to some trash cans. Early in the morning a cop drove by, looked at him and drove away. When Tyler finally awoke, a lady pulled up to an apartment next to the one we were staying at. Tyler was too drunk to realize where we all went. The lady said hi to him "in a way that made it seem like the rest of you guys were staying with her" according to Tyler. So a shirtless, sweaty, dirty, vomit soaked Tyler followed this lady up the stairs to her apartment only to realize...none of us were in there. He finally figured it out and made his way to us.

We finally got on the road at noon and had the most boring, non straight road, hot, longest drive ever from Baton Rouge, Louisiana to Springfield, Missouri. After 12 hours we finally showed up to our friend Warren's house, put on Night Of The Living Dead and hit the hay. Tonight we're playing here in Springfield @ The Lemon Drop. We got the Winnie an oil change today and she's riding great. Not too many shows left of tour, come out to the ones you can!

10.28 Springfield, MO @ Lemon Drop
10.29 Cedar Falls, IA @ 1108
10.30 Iowa City, IA @ White Lightning
10.31 Milwaukee, WI @ Borg Ward
11.01 Indianapolis, IN @ The Dojo
11.02 Nashville, TN @ Little Hamilton
11.03 Chattanooga, TN @ Anarchtica
11.04 Louisville, KY @ Keswick Democratic Club
11.05 Chicago, IL @ Summer Camp
11.06 Omaha, NE @ The Manor

Hope to see the Midwest show up to The Manor on Saturday, November 6th. Let's party!

Fort Worth, Texas

Too-ah. Tur. Tar. Tour.

2 nights ago we played a show in Tulsa, Oklahoma @ The Reverb. I know my buddies in Oklahoma are going to read this and get bummed but I really don't like the state of Oklahoma. I like my friends who live there but Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah all bum the shit out of me when I'm there. I don't know why. The vibe of all of those states just weird me out. Desolate places.

The show there was fun. Not many people showed up but I still had a good time. Played at a really cool venue called The Reverb. We got to Tulsa about 3 hours before the show started so we hung out at the venue for a while then decided to hit the town. Nothing seemed to be going on so we did some online research about different strip clubs in town. After some scientific diagnosis we decided on "Night Trips." A few of the dudes didn't have money to weren't 21 so a few of us went in while others hung out in the parking lot.

Being under 21 didn't stop Johnny from Agress. He took Eric's ID and walked into the club like he owned the place and he got in no problem, it was wild. He even ordered a Budweiser. A true American hero. So we looked at some strippers for a while. Mainly watched them all come right over to Chino. I don't know if it was his long locks or his leather vest but every stripped gravitated right to his glorious mustache. When a woman wants a true man, they can find one in Chino.

After an hour or so at Night Trips we decided it was about time to get back to The Reverb. As we were leaving Agress backed out right as we were backing out causing us to stop in the middle of the parking lot. As they continued backwards I noticed they were heading towards a car so I just kept saying "you're gonna hit that car...You're gonna hit that car, watch out there's a car...YOU'RE GONNA HIT THAT CAR" BOOM! Eric backed right into a really nice car that obviously belonged to someone who worked at Night Trips. We started losing it as Agress just sped off right into a dead end. We decided to then get out of there before anyone suspected us.

After the show in Tulsa we stayed with our buddy Josiah. Most of us passed out really quick . Apparently sometime in the night Josiah's dad came up to me as I was sleeping, spread eagle outside of my sleeping bag and asked me "How was the gig tonight?" The only thing I can think of is I was mouth quivering and he may have assumed I was awake? I also slept sitting up with my eyes open in my bed at home a few weeks ago so who knows, my eyes could have been open. Luckily Tyler woke up as this happened and answered "good" for me.

Today we got up early and headed down to Fort Worth, Texas for our show at 1919 Hemphill, one of my favorite venues of all time. We got to Fort Worth and dropped Chino off at his parents. We headed to the Cain resident's and met their 3 cats, exotic fish, turtle who lives in the pool and Colonel, the chicken in the backyard. As Tyler and Kurt enjoyed some clam chowder and bread, Mitch and I headed to Pizza Garden, the supreme $3.99 pizza buffet here in Fort Worth. It. Was. Great. After that we came back to Tyler's and I dumped around on the computer for 2 and half hours, watching south park and cataloging the entire Hercules recording and tour history.

The show at 1919 was sweet. We sadly missed the first band because we were told to get to a show at 9 that started at 8:30. I'm sorry LIKEWISE. Hopefully I'll see your band next time. Next up was Innards, a really sweet screamo type band featuring dudes who used to be in Jubilee. Real nice guys, really good band. Agress was next and they got the crowd mashin' hard. We played after that and slopped around for a few minutes then a really sweet band called Prognosis Negative closed the night out.

I got a nice shower in tonight and we all filled up on some Whattaburger for our midnight snack. Try the BOB (breakfast on a bun). Tomorrow we are playing in San Antonio, TX. Hopefully we have some wild adventures. Tour has been great so far!

Full Hercules discogrpahy / tour history

It's been a wild ride. Here is a full list of everything Hercules has ever recorded and released, plus every tour big or small that we've ever done. Thought about burning some CDRS of our full discography until I realized it would have to be 2 discs. I still might do it.

Tracks 1 -6 THE BISON EP
released 05.29.2005 - self released

Tracks 7 -16 THE DAWN OF THE DILOPHOSAURAS & THE RISE & FALL OF ZORDON
released 03.17.2006 - self released

Tracks 17 - 28 THOSE OF THE DAMNED RUN IN CIRCLES FOR GLORY (CD & LP)
CD released 09.09.2006 - Pretzel City Records
LP released 11.18.2007 - Nihilism Records

Tracks 29 - 34 DRUNK HOMELESS LOSER RIDES AGAIN (I & II)
I released 10.26.2007 - self released
II released 11.28.2008 - self released (this version includes FROM THE MOLD demo)

Tracks 35 - 47 MOON RIDERS
released 06.11.2009 - Nihilism Records

Tracks 48 - 51 BRING ME POWER
released 03.05.2010 - Nihilism / Pretzel City Records

Tracks 52 - 63 SKIN TIGHT
released 03.24.2010 - 5nsakefork Records

01. I’ve Got Your Back

02. Let’s Make It Happen
03. Make Up Your Mind
04. My Names Marshall, I’m From Cleveland
05. The Troubled
06. You Make Me Sick

07. I’ve Got Your Back (re recorded)

08. Remain On Top
09. Deal With It, Sucka
10. My Names Marshall, I’m From Cleveland (re recorded)
11. You Can’t Talk If You Don’t Camp (demo)
12. Stay Like This Forever (demo)

13. Let’s Make It Happen (re recorded)
14. Waiting For The Summer (demo)
15. Piss On You (Vitamin X cover)
16. Live, Laugh, Love (demo)

17. Cast Out
18. Waiting For The Summer

19. Haggard Pits
20. YTTYKSBYDSFY
21. Stay Like This Forever
22. Juggano
23. You Can’t Talk If You Don’t Camp
24. Hang Loose / Head Bang
25. Concrete Wave
26. Keep It Rad
27. Live, Laugh, Love
28. Heart A Tact (Kid Dynamite cover)

29. More Than A Game (demo)
30. Time Wasted (demo)
31. Out Of Luck (demo)
32. Suburban Home (Descendants cover)
33. From The Mold (demo)
34. 420 lb Bong Session

35. Ancient Scrolls of the Moon Riders
36. From The Mold
37. Time Wasted
38. More Than A Game
39. Out Of Luck
40. Limited Time Only
41. Robin Hoodlums
42. Sewer Scum
43. He’s Here
44. The Extraordinary Journey of the Moon Riders
45. Left Behind
46. 5950
47. If You Got The Stash, We Got The Cash

48. Forest Fryer
49. Wicked Witch
50. Island Of The Eyes
51. Lord Of This World (Black Sabbath cover)

52. Goofball Soup
53. Haggard Pits (live)
54. Moon Riders (live)
55. From The Mold (live)
56. Time Wasted (live)
57. You Can’t Talk If You Don’t Camp (live)
58. Robin Hoodlums (live)
59. Sewer Scum (live)
60. He’s Here (live)
61. Left Behind (live)
62. Concrete Wave (live)
63. If You Got The Stash, We Got The Cash (live)

June 2007 - 2 week Midwest tour
October - November 2007 - 1 month East Coast tour
January 2008 - Midwest weekend tour w/ Thrash Wave
May 2008 - 1 month West Coast / Hawaii tour
November - December 2008 - 1 week Midwest tour
February - March 2009 - 1 month East Coast tour w/ The JV All Stars
April 2009 - 1 week Midwest tour
June - July 2009 - 1 month West Coast tour w/ In The Face of War

August - September 2009 - 1 month East Coast tour w/ Battle!
December 2009 - Midwest weekend tour
March 2010 - 1 month West Coast / Canada tour w/ Battle!
June 2010 - 1 week Midwest tour w/ Agress & Lord Green
October - November 2010 - 3 week Midwest tour w/ Agress

05.29.2005 - 11.06.2010
5 and a half years. 9 releases. 63 recorded songs. 35 total songs. 13 tours. Too much fun.

This band has been the biggest thing in my life since I was 16 years old. I will miss it dearly.

Be on the lookout for our new band POWERSLOP that should be starting up Summer 2011.

Kansas City, Missouri

This Hercules / Agress tour kicked off right in Kansas City last night. We played at a really cool DIY venue called the Studded Bird. Pretty much reminded me of a small version of 1919 Hemphill in Fort Worth, TX, one of my favorite venues of all time. The first two bands that played were really awesome local bands, Attention Seeker, featuring the most famous person in Midwest Hardcore, Brett Ray and hard hitters Harsh Reality featuring THRASHER, one of the wildest dudes I've seen.

Attention Seeker was fast and unrelenting hardcore with Brett Ray freaking out on vocals. I'm pretty sure he had tears in his eyes at the end of the set. These dudes were wild. While they played 2 bums walked in. I know, big fucking surprise, bums at a Hercules show. One of the bums really just looked like Father Time and the other one was your standard loser bum. Father Time lied in the middle of the floor for Attention Seekers entire set. They kept getting moshed but they didn't care one bit. At one point while Attention Seeker was playing, Father Time was just screaming in agony while on the floor. Shortly after he lit a cigarette the people running Studded Bird threw him out.

Next up was Harsh Reality, local hard hitters from KCMO featuring Meatball, the legit dude who booked this show for us. They weren't what I was expecting at all. Real heavy hardcore but not in the vein of most bands today, it was pretty cool. Kids got real wild when they played, even the bums were getting in the pit. During their set Father Time started yelling at some girls telling them that they were ugly and they should look in a mirror for 20 years. When he got in the face of one of the girls she pushed him SO.HARD. right back into the crowd where he immediately got moshed to the floor. Post show the bum still wasn't leaving these girls alone so Meatball (a calm, real nice dude) started screaming at this bum that he was going to kick his ass. I was so excited to see this happen. But sadly the bum apologized and sat there saying "I think I did something wrong...I'm engaged you know." I'm, sure you are, bum.

After that Agress took the stage. They knocked out some heavy jammers from their newest self titled 7". Pick one up if you haven't yet. During their punishing set the bum (not father time) was getting real into them. He even stopped after one of the songs and quieted the crowd to say "THESE GUYS CAN PLAY. YOU CAN DO IT. PLAY THAT SHIT!" Jacob Justice was getting pissed at this old dude and said into the mic right at him "I'm not afraid to beat the fuck out of an old dude." The bum got so mad and started yelling "COME ON BOY! COME ON NOW!" But then forgot what he was doing and started laughing and moshing to Agress.

Next, the bum community's all star band Hercules set up to play. Our set was a lot of fun. We've only played Kansas City one other time and that was about 2 years ago w/ Cruel Hand & Dagger Mouth. Kids were getting pretty into it. Our trusty roadie Kurt even moshed so hard that he FLATTENED Father Time ON.HIS.FACE. I was getting really dissapointed that the bum wasn't heckling us at all so I called him out and told him to get up here and yell at me. He still didn't. I broke a string at one point so Tyler decided to give the bum the mic. He wouldn't hold it to his mouth so all I heard out of his speech was "PEOPLE, PEOPLE PLEASE, LISTEN TO ME." I'm sure his advice was breath taking. Towards the end of our set a new bum emerged from the back, clearly flying high on crack cocaine. During our last song he was taking his lighter trying to set himself on fire. The only thing he accomplished was burning off all of his arm hair.

The night ended right at Waffle House where a drunk ass dude was just yelling at his girlfriend thinking she stole his $100 bill. After that we came back to our good friend Amy's house to get a heavy slumber on. On the way here we saw the DRUNKEST.PERSON.EVER. This guy couldn't walk but he was still walking. I stopped and asked him if he was ok and he just threw his arms in the air, waved, and gave me the biggest drunk eyes ever. We went around the block again to take a look at this piece of work and Tyler was begging someone to go push him over. We declined and headed to the house to snooze hard.

Tonight we're playing in Tulsa, Oklahoma @ The Reverb. Keep checking the corner.

Goin South

I was pondering what I was going to write about today and I knew I wanted to do something on a "first" I had in life. Going through all of the possibilities I knew one of them had to stand out as a true dynamite first. First time seeing a naked girl at summer camp when I was 12, first time making out with a girl (Sears dressing room, Oakview Mall, 13 years old) both came to mind but I wanted to write about something that was more universal. A first that every dude in the world has at some point in his life. Then it hit me. I could see the room in my head, I could see what was in each of my hands, I could remember the panic, confusion and fear when I was done. I'm of course talking about the first time I jerked off.

Thinking back to my years as a young dude my big brother was always there to show me the ropes as they say. He was always there to give me brotherly advice on girls, being a dude, whatever I wanted. He wasn't feeding me genius shit or anything but when you're 10 and your big brother tells you something you tend to take it as gospel. Around 1999 / 2000 I was an up and coming goth / nu metal kid idolizing bands such as Korn and Powerman 5000 while at the same time being the pop punk kid I've always been listening to Blink 182 and MXPX religiously. I was a boy turning into a young man and with that comes some wild shit.

When I was 11 or so I started becoming curious about this dick in between my legs. I had heard kids at school talking about jerking off, getting pubes and all of that great stuff but I hadn't experienced anything like that yet. So one day I went home and went downstairs into my brothers room. Anytime I went in there I could guarantee a few things. First, Metallica was on the stereo, second he was in a bad mood and third he was flying high on whatever drug he got his hands on that day. Entering his lair was truly like a box of chocolates. I knew his temper and time were limited so I cut to the chase and asked him "Brett, what is jerking off and how do I do it." Back then my brother was always pretty good at snap back advice that was straight and to the point. He looked up from his bed, The Crow poster huge in the background and said "you pull on your dick until white shit comes out." Easy enough. I went into the bathroom and pulled on my little limp dick for the better part of 10 minutes before I gave up. After that I forgot about jerking off for a while.

Then middle school hit and like all of you boys know, so did the boners. Anywhere, anytime, any reason, no reason. I think I had a boner more than I didn't that first year of middle school. I didn't need anything to set my little dick into a frenzy. A glance at a girl, just the right amount of friction from my blue jeans and I was ready to go. Before you find out you can tug this thing and get it to go down you go through a solid amount of time where you're in pure pain every time you get a boner. Essentially the first few months of boners is just a series of blue balls day in and day out. Your dick is hard, you balls are sore and your hormones are all out of whack. There has to be a way to take care of this thing. I thought back to jerking off and knew it was time to go. I knew I needed some sort of visual stimulation but I'm 12 years old, my internet is slow as shit (aol dial up) and I have no money for magazines.

I had seen porn before. The first time ever was in 2nd grade when my neighbor from across the street Jason stayed over. I vividly remember a passionate CineMax style love scene on a tennis court. I knew to jerk off I needed to see a girl. Naked? In her bra? Fully clothed? So many questions. One night while I had the house to myself I was on the hunt. JC Penny catalog, Summer Sanders on Figure It Out, do I stay up and wait for Real Sex to come on? What to do? Then I see it...I see the thing that gets my little heart pumpin. A compilation of Southern rocks greatest hits... Goin South. The skin was tan, the hair was blonde, the lipstick was red and the boobs were big. What else could I look for on a Tuesday night?

As I'm sure happens to all young men after a good 30 seconds of working at it a pearly white mess came out of me and nearly hit my ceiling. What the fuck just happend? I started freaking out. I did the only thing I could think of. I grabbed my Austin 3:16 shirt next to my bed, cleaned myself up and stuffed the tshirt into the bottom of the laundry basket. After that it was time for some Leno, some Conan and then some sleep. In my mind I had finally become a man. Thank you Goin South girl. I owe a lot to you.

Summer // Fall 2010

Haven't done the corner in a while. Bums me out. Been busy as busy raising a 3 year old, working, touring, playing in 3 bands, going to the pool every night, hanging in Omaha and Lincoln, moving, practicing, writing, working out, living. Not complaining one bit. Life has been good. There's only 6 more months of this year and Hercules, Koizumi and Bent Life all have pretty big plans. I hope we can accomplish it all!

HERCULES:
Hercules has 3 shows booked for the summer. We went out for the first week of June to play Midwest Fest in Milwaukee, WI which was a great time. Saturday, July 10th we're playing @ The Bourboun Theatre in Lincoln, NE w. Bastard Noise // Wasteoid & Violator X. This is technically the first performance of our future band Electrical Group //aka EG4//. Then I'll be gone from July 19th - 29th driving to Sound and Fury and back. The morning after I get back Hercules will hop in the Winnie and drive down to Wichita, Kansas to play ICT FEST 2010 July 30th and 31st. Our last show of the summer will be August 31st @ The Hole in Omaha, NE w. Coliseum // Burning Love & Feral Hands.

On top of these shows we'll be working on songs for a split 7" we'll be doing with LOW ORIOLE from Wichita, Kansas. It will be released by 5nakefork and Pretzel City Records. Most likely with help from our good buddies at Nihilism Records. We're hoping to have that for our fall tour down to Florida for The Fest. We put in our application to play earlier this week. Even if we don't get on the actual bill we'll be playing after shows with our great buddies BATTLE! and hanging out at The Fest. The early route for this is as follows . . .

10.21 Omaha, NE
10.22 Wichita, KS
10.23 Oklahoma City, OK
10.24 Fort Worth, TX
10.25 Houston, TX
10.26 New Orleans, LA
10.27 Pensacola, FL
10.28 Tallahassee, FL
10.29 Gainesville, FL *THE FEST*
10.30 Gainesville, FL *THE FEST*
10.31 Gainesville, FL *THE FEST*
11.01 Jacksonville, FL
11.02 Birmingham, AL
11.03 Johnson City, TN
11.04 Louisville, KY
11.05 Chicago, IL
11.06 Cedar Falls, IA

Booking for this tour will start middle of this summer. After this tour Aaron is doing some awesome stuff with one of his other projects BACK WHEN and doing great things personally as well! Because of these things Hercules will be taking a 6 month break and will resume our never ending quest of writing, recording and touring Summer 2011.

KOIZUMI:
I've been working hard this summer trying to write and finish up song ideas to cut up and put together with the boys for a Koizumi full length we're trying to record before the years end. This will be our first "official" release as a band...and we formed in 2006. I wish this wasn't the case but what can you do? We've recorded 4 demos and finally compiled all of those together this year and self released "DEMOS" which we gave out at the few shows we played this year. If you want a copy feel free to pick one up at a show or go to www.mediafire.com/koizumi

BENT LIFE:
Bent Life is a band I've been jamming in with some Lincolnites you may have heard of such as Andy Vorhees, The Miller twins and Justin Rodriguez. Think New York Hardcore played by Midwestern kids. Right now we're working on songs for a demo and after we have that we're going to play our first show this fall then hit the road for a week in support of that demo. More info on this soon.

I know no one really cares about any of this. I'm more just capturing a moment in my life so I can look back and remember it when I'm old and dumb. Really looking forward to the rest of this year. I think a lot of awesome things are going to happen and I'm confident in all of these plans coming together this year. I'm also throwing around the idea of getting a hold of my good buddy Jeff Sedreal (performs as Geophph Seadrill) and trying to hit the midwest with a car and our sad acoustics to finally do the tour we had planned on doing in May 2009 until it fell through. Big plans and no time. That's the way Big Cool lives.

Come out to hardcore // punk // rock // metal // indie // hip hop // whatever shows
MIDWEST IS THE BEST!

www.crucialchanges.blogspot.com
nebraskadiy.aceboard.com
www.myspace.com/nebraskahardcore
www.myspace.com/herculesne
www.myspace.com/koizumine

As always follow my dump ass on twitter - www.twitter.com/bigcoolscorner - the corner on speed.

Celebrating 10 years

Embarrassed

Last night I was in Omaha and I told the story of the first time I remember being embarrassed. I was born in Kearney, Nebraska, a small town 3 hours west of Omaha some of you may or may not have heard of. I lived there until I was 5 years old then the Stephens family packed up and hit the road to Omaha. While in Kearney I really got into the power rangers. I attended a Catholic Pre School and I only went a few times a week. I remember my mom picking me up every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and taking me to McDonald's so I could get a happy meal. Then we'd go home and I'd eat said happy meal while watching my favorite show in the world...The Power Rangers. The ORIGINAL Power Rangers. Not this Power Rangers Nitro Force or whatever bullshit.

I of course like most young kids took Karate lessons. Mostly because I wanted to be able to fight like the Power Rangers. So one summer day I woke up early, threw on my uniform and went out into the backyard to fight imaginary people who were most likely working for the evil Rita Reuplsa . I LOVED Tommy who was the infamous and most bad ass Green Ranger / White Ranger. He was obviously the coolest when he became the White Ranger, ftw. For my 5th birthday my mom purchased me a cheap plastic version of the White Rangers incredible Saber Sword. I absolutely loved it and I'm pretty sure I carried it around with me and even wanted to take it to Karate class.

So naturally when I was in the backyard to fight Rita Repulsa's goons I was not only armed with my ninja outfit but also with my Saber Sword. Our duplex sat right behind an alley that lead you to a gas station called the C-Store where all of the local riff raff would hang out. I was in my backyard slaying imaginary monsters when this jeep full of teenagers pulls up. I remember it was a super windy day and I was standing on top of my moms car. I had just defeated Bulk and Skull and in a triumphant gesture I held the sword up with both hands and screamed into the air, wind blowing back my over sized karate outfit and bowl cut. The teenagers in the jeep stopped, laughed uncontrollably and the girl in the passengers seat yelled "LOSER!" as they drove off. I ran inside and hid in my room. For the first time in my life I was embarrassed.

Birthday Weekend

Hanging out in my bed at 3:00am after taking a 2 hour nap from 10:45-12:45. I turned 22 years old today. It really wasn't a big deal at all. I feel like I did less today than on my usual Thursdays off. Today made me realize that after your 21st birthday it's all down hill from there. Birthday wise. I realize that from now until I die my birthdays will only matter every decade. Still have two more birthday celebrations to hit up before I can hang up my bday cap n gowned.

Kailey's birthday is Sunday then I'm going to slam down some Valentino's Grand Italian Buffet on Monday with my family. After that mess of a dinner I'm gonna have to sober up (from the pizza) and try to play some Koizumi songs acoustic at Ghost House. I think I may throw in a Blink 182 and a Weezer cover. How original and fresh of me, right? If you haven't heard there is a last minute show Monday night at Ghost House...

Monday, April 12th @ Ghost House
2430 P ST Lincoln, NE

- CRIME IN STEREO (Long Island heart breakers)
- ROBBERS (Jessie Lacey's little brother hahaha)
- HOLLOW BOMB (Aurora boys bein stoked)
- BROCK (me crying my eyes out)

8:00pm. $5. You know the drill.

I'm pumped because after work tomorrow I'm gonna hop in the Pontiac and hit I-80 West to go stay at The Butt in Omaha. Real excited to be hanging with the Omaha boys and girls Friday and Saturday. If any of you are reading this then hit me up and let's get wild. I'm really interested in crashing a lame hipster party and going to Alvarados after.

That's all I got for now. I'm going to try and update the corner while I'm home as well. Maybe day to day bullshit, show reviews, random weird things, whatever. Join the life of Big Cool. Can anyone else believe that nickname stuck? Mind you I gave it to myself 3 years ago.

Time to throw on an episode of Degrassi and crank those VOLS a little to block out the sound of the loud snoring girl next to me. OMAHA, see you soon. LINCOLN, better be seeing you Monday night.

22 years old

My old ass in turning 22 tomorrow, April 8th, 2010 @ 8:32am

Home From Tour

We had our last show 2 days ago in Minneapolis, Minnesota @ The Rathole. We left Cedar Falls pretty late after some hard hanging out and eating a great Chinese buffet with our buddy Thomas. We rolled into Minneapolis around 7:30pm and hung out until the show finally got poppin around 10:30pm. In that time we had to make a stop at Tyler's favorite restaurant, White Castle for his 22nd birthday. He slammed down a # 1 plus 2 more sliders (one fish, one classic). After that we loaded into the Winnie and headed back to The Rathole.

While eating at White Castle we sadly missed Bring That Shit's set which really bummed me out. There were a ton of punks out at the show and that was really sweet. I guessed around 100 but I was told probably only 60 or so. With people going in and out and all wearing the same clothes it was hard to tell for real. Never the less there were a lot of people there. It was a 6 band show that got started at 10:30 and we were scheduled to play last. We planned on driving home that night so we knew it was going to be a late one.

Some really awesome bands played. Bring That Shit, Much Worse, Lord Green, Animals and Beasts and Dios Mio. During Much Worse I was standing at the top of the stairs when the door to the show room suddenly swings open and a man flies out at hits the stairs. Apparently (according to the dude who threw him out) the dude was a "new york asshole hate mosher." It was pretty nuts. The crowd was a wild mix of Minneapolis punks and I loved it. Saw a dude there who I straight up thought was the lead singer of The Casualties. Walked by another punk who was sobbing like a child saying "I love my dad, why doesn't he love me? I wish he would just kill me." People got problems n shit.

By the time Dios Mio took the room people were real wasted and looking for a fight. Saw two dudes completely fucked up go from hating each other and almost fighting to hugging to eventually pushing each other and yelling "FUCK YOU MAN! GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!" Finally at around 1:45am it was our turn to play. It was an alright time. I jumped up and smashed my head into the ceiling, leaving a nice dent. When my head collided with the ceiling I heard a loud CRUNCH on the inside of my neck and it's hurt pretty bad ever since. These dudes kept grabbing Danny's cymbals so I kicked one of them square in the chest. He was so fucked up he didn't care though. At the end of the show Chino got revenge by throwing his bass right into the two dudes, it was great.

After that we loaded up the Winnie for one last time and finally got on the road back to Omaha at 4:00am. I passed out in the back in a lot of pain and finally after 5 and a half hours we pulled back home at 9:30am. I wasn't into going to bed so I headed to my parents house for a day filled with laundry, internet, television and a nice shower. I met up with my girls later in the day, ate Valentinos Grand Italian Buffet then hit the road to Lincoln. Not much sleep here at the Farm, I was woken up at 8:00am and I realized I really am back at home. I'm spending today with my favorite girl Dani watching Monsters Inc, going to the park, getting ice cream then hopefully taking a nap.

Tour fucking ruled. I can't wait to hit the road once again. Thanks so much to our pals in Battle for making tour such a great time, we'll see you dick bags in October. Thanks to everyone we met (even the bums...especially the bums) and everyone who helped us out with a show, a place to stay or anything. Thanks to Bailey for getting us into Canada and booking us some cool ass shows. Check out Voices from Calgary, Alberta. We'll be back to Canada as soon as we can.

Hercules isn't slowing down too much. We're playing a show in April and a show or 2 in may then a short tour in June up to Midwest Fest and home. Playing with Bastard Noise in July then I'm sure we'll be booking up the rest of the summer soon. Another big tour in October. Possible split being worked out soon. Whammy.

Upcoming shows:

April 25th Lincoln, NE @ Ghost House w. Former Thieves, Bone Dance, Agress & Discourse

May 23rd Omaha, NE @ The Commons w. Foundation, Rotting Out, Backtrack, Harms Way & Feral Hands

June 2nd Sioux City, IA @ Legion Hall w. Life Won't Wait, Crooked Ways & more

June 3rd Minneapolis, MN @ The Beat w. Life Won't Wait, Crooked Ways, Nothing To Nothing, Everything Went Black & Arms Aloft

June 3rd Minneapolis, MN @ TBA *LATE SHOW* w. TBA

June 4th Minneapolis, MN @ MIDWEST FEST

June 5th Minneapolis, MN @ MIDWEST FEST

June 6th - 8th TBA w. AGRESS

June 9th Omaha, NE @ The Hole w. In Defence, Agress & High Dive

July 10th Lincoln, NE @ The Bourbon w. Bastard Noise & more!

www.myspace.com/herculesne for all dat info n shit

Waterloo, IA

We had a day off yesterday so we went to Lawrence, Kansas and checked out a really sweet show @ The Replay Lounge w/ Former Thieves, Everything Went Black, Canyons & Battlefields. We met an awesome bum named PM who taught us a lot about picking up girls. He suggested licking them and telling them "girlllllllllll you taste like vanilla." He was probably the smoothest bum on a three wheel bike that I've ever met. The show was really awesome. Former Thieves is such a tight band. Not tight like slang, they legitly play their music great and they are TIGHT in that sense. Get it? Good. I don't know if I mentioned Matt left tour in Wichita. Give him shit about it 605-759-6235

After the show us, Former Thieves and Battlefields all crashed at our new buddies Will and Sam's house. Their in a band called Jabber Josh, check em out. Da Big Man and I crashed in the van due our cat allergies going fucking crazy after mere minutes of being in that house. I was having a real hard time breathing and went to sleep honestly wondering if I was going to wake up. We slept hard and woke up way too late so we had to get the boys goin and hit the road to Waterloo, Iowa. I don't have much to say about the drive because I slept the entire god damn time. Only things I remember is almost getting into a car wreck with a cop who slammed on his breaks to make a u turn and passing World's Of Fun.

The show in Waterloo tonight was so fucking sweet. Our good buddy Thomas from the incredible band Agress put it on for us at Amvets Post 19. We played with such a good band full of 16 year old kids called Build No System. They played heavy, fast hardcore and it made me bummed I was in White Collar Mercy when I was 16 and not in a good band. Our friends Lord Green played and they were fucking killer as always. Found out they're playing with us in Minneapolis tomorrow and I can't wait. We're actually all hanging out right now jamming Sabbath as some partake in the dope plant. A lot of good Iowa friends came out to the show tonight and it was so great seeing everyone. Midwest is the fest, fuck the world.

Tomorrow we play our last show of tour in Minneapolis. This tour has been so fucking awesome and it took us great places where we met the coolest people. We have a lot of shows coming up still. We're playing MIDWEST FEST this June and plan on playing some shows up to it and back home. Plus a ton of local shows and a big big tour in the fall that we'll know more about as the time get's closer. I'll do a nice tour wrap up when I get home on Sunday night. I'm excited to get back and see my girls. Not excited to go back to work but it's whatever. My 22nd birthday is on April 8th so throw me a party or something.

Speaking of birthday's...Tyler turned 22 about 2 hours ago. Everyone wish him happy birthday. 402-515-3847

Upcoming Hercules shows:

March 27th MINNEAPOLIS, MN @ The Rathole w. Lord Green, Dios Mio, Bring That Shit, and more!

April 25th LINCOLN, NE @ Ghost House w. Former Thieves, Agress, Bone Dance & Discourse

May 23rd OMAHA, NE @ The Commons w. Foundation, Rotting Out, Backtrack, Harms Way & Feral Hands

June 4th - 5th MILWAUKEE, WI *MIDWEST FEST*

June 9th OMAHA, NE @ The Hole w. In Defence, High Dive & more

July 10th LINCOLN, NE @ The Bourbon w. Bastard Noise

adding more shows up to Midwest Fest and back home to that In Defence show. Keep checking www.myspace.com/herculesne for all of that info. See you punks at home next week!

Wichita, KS

After Reno we headed to play a gig in Ogden, UT. We were a little nervous because we've never had a good show in Utah and before this show had only actually played 1 out of the 3 times we'd gone. We rolled up to the venue The Basement and the show ended up being really cool. We played with One Clean Life, A Better Hope Foundation and Battle! It was a really fun time. After the show the owner took us to the basement and told us some creepy suicide shit that went down there years ago. He freaked me the fuck out. He told the stories like it was his god damn job or like he was a scary old timer in a horror movie. Was not into it.

After the show we were told we'd be staying with a pregnant lady. We got here number and shit got wild. Tyler couldn't understand a word she was saying and said it sounded like she was talking with her face in a pillow. After 15 minutes I decided to take over the phone and see what the fuck was up. I was on the phone with this girl and she was giving me North / South / East / West directions like I knew where the fuck I was. She finally says hold on and yells at someone in the background "CAN YOU GET OFF THE FUCKING PHONE AND TALK TO ME!?! TELL THESE GUYS HOW TO FUCKING GET HERE!" Cue the new guy. "SHUT THE FUCK UP AND TAKE CARE OF MOM! Hello? Hey dude it's probably not a good idea if you guys stay here." I replied "Alright man." He then started giving me directions . . .

I pulled up to a street I had to be on. I asked him what way to turn and he told me "just follow it." Then he started yelling at his sister or girlfriend or wife or whatever the fuck again. "So just follow that until you hit a 5 way stop and there will be a wal mart so just hit that up..." There was then a 15 second pause . . . "Yeah just hit up that Walmart. Well you can go straight there or not. Actually those directions suck. Just like follow that street until you see a Mexican restaurant then turn left on 85 or 89 or some shit, I donno. Hey you guys can stay here, people are trying to fucking sleep (after SCREAMING just seconds before?) alright? So yeah, just like left on 85 or 89 or some shit then like there will be train tracks maybe? Then just call me."

All of those directions took him around 10 minutes to explain to me. There were good pauses between all of those sentences. It was one of the hardest conversations I've ever had to deal with. We told the girl thanks but no thanks and we'd stay somewhere else. She told us her place was calm now and she was just pregnant. It was weird ass time. We ended up getting a single bed hotel room and crashing out. We had to wake up the next morning at 8:00am so we could get on the road to make the 9 hour trek to Denver, Colorado.

We had heard reports of some snow in Denver but were told by the promoter that things were looking good there. About 3 hours into the drive Battle told us (who had left the night before) that I-70 was closed and they were stuck at a gas station somewhere. Luckily we were taking a southern route and thought we'd be alright. At 5:30 I took over the wheel and we had 100 miles left to Denver. I'll tell you why we didn't make it to Denver until 11:00pm. We hit the mountains and the snow started getting hectic. There were points where I couldn't even see the road. To top it off it was windy as hell and icy as hell. There were 2 points where I actually thought we were sliding off of the mountain. After a hellish hour up there the real shit started.

After going into a tunnel we saw a dead stop traffic jam ahead of us. We ended up sitting in essentially one spot for 45 minutes and that wasn't the bad part. At this point we had only 30 miles left to go. By this point it was already 8:00pm and the show had already been called off due to the blizzard and unexpected foot of snow that hit Denver a day after it was 60 and sunny there. It took us 3 more hours to get to Denver. 2 and a half of those hours were us going between 8 and 12 mph down US-6. It took 2 and a half hours to drive 15 miles and that's without stopping. We were just driving that slow. Finally the traffic broke and we drove the last 15 miles to Denver. We stopped at saved the night by eating the best vegan buffalo wings in the world at City O City, then met up with our buddy Dave and fell asleep in preparation for another 8 hour drive.

Today we had an easy time getting to Wichita, Kansas where we played an awesome fucking show. So pumped to be back in Wichita and back in the Midwest. Our bud Phil @ 5nakeFork Records gave us a ton of copies of our new live tape "Skin Tight" and they look fucking great. Pick one up! After the show was some good burritos and good hanging at a party. Matt bid us farewell today and headed back up to Sioux Falls. Today is also our last day with Battle and we couldn't be more fucking bummed out. So we will finish the last 3 days of tour alone.

3.25 Lawrence, KS @ Replay Lounge *tba*

w. Everything Went Black, Former Thieves & Canyons

3.26 Cedar Falls, IA @ Amvets Post 19

w. Lord Green & Build No System

3.27 Minneapolis, MN @ The Rathole

w. Dios Mio, Bring That Shit & Animals and Beasts

The final day of tour is Tyler's birthday so we will be partying hard. Already making our plans for summer and fall tours. Hopefully leaving the country again on both of them. I found out I am going to Colombia with my girlfriend and her family for a week in August for free. I'm real excited to be leaving the country possibly 4 times this year. Tour life rules. Change your life and start a band, get a van and hit the road. There's nothing better. Hopefully there will be more updates before I'm home to do the tour wrap up post.

We'll be playing shows every month for probably the rest of the year so come out to them. Check the myspace for updates www.myspace.com/herculesne and be looking out for news on our new full length BOOK OF SPELLS that we hope to have released by years end.

Thanks for reading.

Reno, NV

Why would we have a normal time? Other crazy shit has happened since my last update. We spent our day after our hell at the border in Seattle, Washington. Played a nice game of wiffle ball at Washington University right in the quad. It was a killer time. We had a show booked for a while at The Viaduct in Tacoma, Washington. With our great luck, all of the local bands dropped off the day before the show. We hung out for a while and ate some grub with some good buddies who came out from different cities in Washington to hang out and watch us play. There weren't a lot of people at the show but it was still a great time. I love that venue. I think going to Rain Fest there would be a really awesome time.

After the show the Hercules crew went to this really sweet gay bar right next to the Viaduct. We were hanging out having and a great time. We ended up meeting this lady named Jumapili (joo ma pee lee) and she invited us back to her house. Jumapili is a 43 year old women with long dreadlocks in her hair and she was really into Danny. We stop at 7 Eleven so she can buy some booze for the dudes to drink. We show up at her tiny house and at the same time her boyfriend shows up with his other girlfriend? It was a confusing situation. We all pile into a room that's probably 7x7 feet long to hang out. This other girl then starts to tell me her fucking life story and all of the crazy drugs she's addicted to. I have 10 minutes of video of this lady telling me about her ups and downs with coke, rehab and her therapist. It was the crazy shit ever and I cannot wait to tell you all.

Everyone got really drunk and high. Our buddy Jeff from HHTSHOTE drove 5 hours from some town in Washington just to hang out with us and it was awesome. Tyler got so drunk he spent most of the night puking in and sleep on the bathroom floor. As this is happening we're watching the new episode of South Park and Jumapili is telling us about her crazy life. Apparently she is the inventor of the image uploader that is used on myspace, facebook and countless other websites. She is a gulf war veteran and has been married 4 times. Now she lives with her boyfriend and I think his other girlfriend. It was a nutty time. We finally scooped Tyler off the bathroom floor and hit the road.

The next day we had a show in Portland, Oregon...or so we thought. We rolled early into Portland and hit up the incredible local spot Voodoo donuts. Me, Gabe and Matt got a Voodoo Dozen and it was truly fucking amazing. Probably the best donuts I've ever had. Crazy varieties, pretty much anything and everything you could imagine. Vegan donuts that Vic would have came for. We also hit up a Thai cart that had insanely good pad Thai. We cruised around downtown for a long time and finally stopped at one of the best record shops I've been to 2nd Ave Records. I had to get out of there because I could have easily spent over $1,000 on records right then. Here's where our day get's real interesting.

The promoter for the show wanted to meet up so we met her at 2nd Ave. After 5 minutes of a car ride with her it's already apparent that she's a little off. She keeps telling us she can't get a hold of the dude with a PA and can't get a hold of anyone with a key to the venue we're playing at. But she assures us that the show is still on. She also tells us after the show she is getting us food and a hotel room. We cruise around the city more and she just keeps getting weirder and weirder. Finally it's about 6:00pm and she tells us the show is definitely off and that she has to babysit her brother at 7:30...

We stop at the Satyricon to try and hop on a show but it wasn't looking good. She then tells us 20 minutes away in Vancouver, Washington there's a bands tour kickoff show that we can play. She also said it's perfect because it's close to her house so we can come over for food after. We load up and make the drive to this venue Pop Culture. It's like an old time soda shoppe and a venue as well. We're playing a show for Grab The Cameras cd release show. We're told we're going on last so we can just set up merch and hang out. We then sit through 3 hours of the worst metalcore I've heard since 2005. Every band has a weird light show and sounds pretty awful.

Finally the last band is done and it's time for us and Battle to set up. At this point the promoter girl is still not back at the show. We were wondering how she was planning on originally doing our show if she had to babysit her brother all night. To save time us and Battle decide to share equipment. We get all set up then the promoter for the metalcore show approaches us to tell us the show is over and we can't play. Apparently we were never supposed to play, we were just allowed to come there and sell merch...

We're all pissed as shit. I'm so mad I start smashing my head into signs until I get a nice cut up there. Riley is punching shit, we're honking horns, we're yelling, we're wondering where the fuck this girl is. Some friends of Matt's in Portland give him a call and ask him why we weren't at our original show. Apparently they showed up to the 1st venue and a lady was there saying there was supposed to be a show at 9 but the promoter didn't show up. I then get on our myspace and a band we got to play the Portland show messaged us pissed asking us why we didn't show up to the show tonight. So after 3 hours of metalcore and setting up our shit only to be told we couldn't play...our original show was on all along. We had a lot of Portland friends who were pumped to come to the show then were told at the door it was off.

We need some fucking answers so we decide to head to the promoters house (she still never showed up to the show...?). She told us to come on over because she made us fajitas. We show up there and tell her how we didn't get to play the metalcore show and that our original show was a go all along. She didn't understand ANY of that but at this point I was done with this girl. She also informed us that she was "really sorry" but she had eaten the fajitas she made for us. We had it so we took some food and hit the road. By the way...not hotel room.

On our way to Taco Bell we get pulled over for "suspicious activity" and our burnt out headlight. In seconds we are surrounded by 5 cop cars. After our experience at the border you could say we weren't too excited about the situation. One cop is taking all of the our info then another rolls up to the window. Matt is carrying what's left of our Voodoo donuts and the cop tells us they were all there because they smelled the donuts. We then start talking music and he's telling us how he's seen Rush 5 times and the first time was in Germany in 1986. The first cop is trying to be professional while this guy tells him "hold on I'm telling these guys a story." Basically this Rush cop saved us and we didn't get busted and were free to go.

During all of this that girl is texting Aaron, pissed that we didn't say goodbye. Apparently her parents saw that we were pulled over and she told us she was coming to find us. Terrified we hid out in a Fred Meyer's parking lot and saw her drive by in hot pursuit of us. It was scary shit and we all screamed as she drove by. Luckily an old friend who tried to go to our show got a hold of us to see what was up then said we could crash at his apartment. After 3 of the craziest days of our lives we finally got to hang out, eat pizza and just sleep.

Yesterday we played a decent show in Redding. We drove overnight to Reno where we're playing tomorrow. We had today off since the Set It Straight reunion canceled our show in Sacramento. We've spent today cruising Reno and are getting all dolled up to hit the streets and the Casinos hard in about an hour here. The trashiest place I've ever been in was a Mcdonalds we stopped at today. Crack head lady singing Incubus, a man with terrible burns and no eyes, bums as far as the eye could see and a 17 year old security guard reading the bible.

Time for me the shave up and get ready to party! I'll be home in a week. Until next time . . .

\

Born In The, USA

ATTN: This will be a long read, but hopefully worth it!

So much has went down since my last post. Where do I begin? I'll start in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. We drove overnight from our show in Edmonton and got to Calgary real early in the morning. We stayed at a house with this band called Voices from Calgary who is AWESOME. Do yourself a favor and check them out right now. The next day we awoke and grubbed hard at Safeway. Matt and I spent a long time looking for Screamers. It's these incredible Canadian slurpees where you "drop the puck" and put a puck of vanilla ice cream in the slurpee. After that Matt and I hit the gym then headed back to Voices house, loaded up and went to the show.

>The drive into downtown Calgary was awesome. Such a rad city to be in. We played at this venue called The New Black Centre and it was probably one of the coolest venues I've been in. It was on these train tracks overlooking the city and it had huge perfect stairs to load up in. Calgary was easily the best show we've played so far and probably one of my favorite shows I've ever played on tour. A lot of kids came out and both us and Battle had really fun sets. After the show we ate at an amazing place called Tubby Dogs. They had vegan and regular hot dogs to eat plus any topping imaginable. Even peanut butter, jelly and cereal hot dogs. I got mine with a side of yam fires which were hands down the best fries I've ever had. Their onion rings looked like gigantic donuts. Out of this world late night food.

After Tubby Dogs we had to make a hellish 13 and a half hour drive from Calgary, Alberta to Langley, British Columbia. We left Calgary at 1:00am and drove through the Canadian rockies. All I can say is the drive was pretty awful. Hard to sleep and it seemed to never end. We finally rolled into Langley at 2:30pm and spaced off the entire day until it was time to play. The show was really weird and didn't even have a PA until 15 minutes before we played. The show ended up being a good time and we had fun screaming so loud after that a lady thought Matt and I were in a real fight.

>We left after the show and made the short drive into Vancouver to stay at the next venue we were playing at The Alf House. Everyone there was awesome and they led us to an amazing pizza place called Pizza Garden that used sesame seeds on their crust to make for amazing treat. After that we crashed out in anticipation to check out the great city of Vancouver. We awoke the next morning and got a great $2.95 breakfast at Bon's Off Broadway. Then it was time to explore the city. We split up to take a buddy to the airport and to legally purchase the dope plant. While some of us explored the city others enjoyed many of Vancouver's fine coffee shops. Matt and I walked down bum alley where Matt was approached and touched by a passing bum. Real scary shit.

On our away around the city in the Battle van we got to close to a Ford F1-50 and smashed their mirror with ours and completely ripped theirs off. Seconds later we saw a bum writhing in pain, grab his heart and fall on the ground. It was a lot to process in such a short amount of time. We checked out a lot of Olympic shit that was all around and it was really awesome. We finally met up with the boys at Crab Beach in the beautiful downtown. We cruised the city a little more together and yelled at some locals. Our buddies from The Alf House wanted to take us to another pizza joint called Fire Pizza. They also used sesame seeds on their crust and 2 slices and a soda was $1.25 cheaper than at Pizza Garden.

While eating pizza with friends a group of 15-20 cops formed across the street. It seemed strange but we didn't think anything of it. Suddenly we heard a huge group of people screaming at the top of their lungs. We look outside only to find a protest had formed right outside of the pizza shop we were at. It was a bunch of young punkers dressed in black. The sign they held read "COPS=PIGS=MURDERERS." As they chanted up the street Matt and Jim decided to join the protest and scream at the PIGS. We then listened as the protesters and local citizens clashed. We took the opportunity to take funny pictures in front of the protest and make a mockery of something these people actually cared about. I got great pictures and video I can show you all when I get home.

After that it was time for the show! We played at that sweet house we stayed at called The Alf House. The show was a really good time. Reminded me of going to shows at Ghost House pretty much. Got started real late and it was in a dusty old basement with some young punk rock hooligans. After the show we crashed out and awaited our last day in Canada. We woke up and hit up Bon's $2.95 breakfast again. Matt ran outside to grab something from the van and me, Gabe and Danny sat waiting for him to get back so we could pay for our bill. We finally just covered his portion when he didn't show up. We walked out to see what was going on only to see everyone else standing in front a 4 vehicle car wreck. Apparently an old lady thought the Battle van was leaving so she slammed on her breaks which caused 3 other people to slam on their breaks which caused everyone to crash. The last car was filled with 3 nuns who were screaming and crying while exiting the car. It was really intense. I think one of the nuns was injured pretty bad. Everyone kept telling the lady there's no way that the van was leaving and that she was nuts. A few people gave a statement to the cops then we were on our way.

Before we crossed the border we had to stop and exchange all of our money which took a lot longer than expected because we had to go to two different banks. After that it was USA bound. We got to the border around 3:00pm. I pulled up and handed the gentlemen our passports and our papers showing the shows we played in Canada. He threw the papers back at me and said he didn't need them. Then he told me to pull the van in a designated parking spot. Before I could even get the van into gear he told me "GO!" We pulled up to two more officers who seemed to think I didn't know how to follow a pointing finger or park a car. They kept yelling "THIS SPOT ON THIS SIDE! PULL UP TO THE WHITE LINE!" We exited the Winnie and they told us to leave our phones inside. I could tell at this point we were going to have an interesting experience trying to get back into our own country.

We went into the main building and stood in line for probably 30 - 45 minutes until it was finally our turn. I gave the cop a orange slip of paper that we received at the first stop. We were then told to take a seat and waited another long ass time before finally being called up. I filled out a single piece of paper for the band and the cop told me our merch wasn't a big deal and after he did some paper work we were free to go. After another long wait that cop told us he had other business to attend to and that we were getting assigned a new officer. After yet another long wait this new cop told us everything that guy told us and had us do was wrong so we had to re do it all. We all had to fill out new paper work and she told us we would be charged $11.00 to bring in our merch even though we originally got it in the states...it was a confusing ordeal. At this point Battle had already came in, gone through the line and left and they got there way after us. We knew at that point that something was wrong.

An officer with the K-9 unit told us he needed to have a word with us. He said he knew we were a band so knew that we were smoking in the van. He asked us if we had the day before and we said of course. He said that was fine and he understood we were in Canada. He then asked if his dog would find anything in the van and we honestly did not think he would so we said no. So he told us to wait while they searched the van. We could see them pulling everything out of the Winnie and toss all of our shit on the ground. It was raining outside and we figured that most of our shit was either wet or completely ruined. We figured we would be ok though because we cleaned out the van and thought any traces of the plant was long gone. After a while the K-9 officer came in holding a little bag and had a stern ass look on his face. He told us "didn't think he'd find it huh?" We looked in the bag that he was holding and it had probably 1 or 2 stems in there. We asked him what it was and where he found it. He took that as us being smart asses and got fucking furious. He told us we were "Americas finest" and that he couldn't wait to pat us down.

They finally started to take us into the back one by one. When you would go back there they'd take you into a holding cell and have you stand against the wall. Two officers then came in and one held your hands behind your back while the other officer handcuffed you. We were then deeply searched for probably 5 - 10 minutes. They even went through my hair for the better part of a minute. I felt like Saddam Hussein after the US caught him. They asked me why I had so much money on me and I told them it was the money we've made on tour and they didn't buy that. We all sat in there for a while then we were released on told to go back into the main hall and wait. Early word was that since I was driving they were going to give me a big fine. They took our ID's and then finally called us up to the front for our fate. The officer told us "We're not going to charge you with the stems, you guys are free to go." He then gave us comment cards, our passports and ID's and we were on our way outside. 3 fucking hours of being treated like shit then released just like that. The officer who gave me our passports told me "sorry about the wait."

We then walked outside only to find everything in our van all over the fucking ground. Aarons head was knobs down on the cement, my cab was sitting on it's side in a puddle of water, Danny's shit was all wet and our bags had all been gone through and fucked up beyond belief. The dudes outside didn't seem to interested in the fact that they had probably ruined all of our shit. We loaded up the Winnie then tried to leave the station. We got stopped again trying to leave because we didn't have this orange slip. Pissed off, we pulled over only to have someone finally wave us through and we were finally back in the USA. Welcome home, right? It was a pretty bummer ordeal and it put a damper on our spirits for the next few hours. Couldn't believe that we were waved into Canada and treated like complete shit trying to get back into the states. Played a cool show in Bellingham, Washington then drove an hour and a half to Seattle where I am right now typing this. Watching Saved By The Bell, waiting for Battle to pick up a friend then we're going to hit the city. Tonight we're playing @ The Viaduct in Tacoma. More updates soon.

*I guess in an earlier post I said WE dropped the N bomb and things got weird in Lethbridge, Alberta. It was the kids we were staying with who dropped it and we told them we don't say that and then things got weird. Sorry for the mix up*

Edmonton, AB

Saskatoon had a wild turn of events. Riley from Battle and I played an open mic night. It's kind of hard for me to describe what I did. Basically I pretended I was this overly shy dude and I would mess up songs and get really mad at myself, tell uncomfortable stories, do really strange moves and was just an all around weirdo. You'll have to ask other people to get a better story. It was a hilarious time and I bummed out the girl who did open mic night REALLY hard. I ruined the one thing she has in her life I think.

Yesterday we played in Lethbridge, Alberta at this huge hall called the German Canadian Club. As we walked in a funeral was JUST getting over. It was so weird. There was just this grieving family getting drunk as kids set up their stuff and started playing. A lot of kids came out which was awesome. Played with 3 metalcore type bands. The mosh was hard. Us and Battle had a killer time hanging out in this huge hall and had an even better time playing. After the show we stayed at this kids apartment. We dropped the N bomb and things got really weird. Some of us ate at Dennys. Build your own grand slam - unlimited pancakes all night.

Today we are in Edmonton, AB. This place is HUGE! I had no idea. It looks like Los Angeles or something. There was a massage parlor (obviously a rub n tug center) that said "licensed by therapist" on the window but it was separated by some wood so it just read "LICENSED BY THE RAPIST." It was hilarious. We got a nice snap shot. We're playing at this community center. Tonight is probably the smallest show we've played in Canada so far but there's still like 20-30 kids here which is awesome since we've never been here before and we're from a different country. I know I'm forgetting a ton of funny stories but I suppose you'll just have to wait until we get home to hear them all. I'm getting some really good pictures. We're meeting a lot of bums of course but non have yet to wonder into our show and tell me they once played with Eric Clapton or something. There's a really good screamo band playing right now. Eat your heart out Matt Vicars.

Last night Matt and I cut ourselves and people were not into it. I touched a light that was 12 feet in the air. Tomorrow we're going to the home of one of my heroes Brett The Hitman Heart, Calgary Alberta. So excited. I hear he hangs out at malls so I'm gonna try and find him. If I do I'll lose my mind. I met him once when I was little but I didn't talk to him because I was terrified. If I do meet him do I tell him I watched his brother die? Hard to tell. Until next time . . .

Saskatoon, SK

Absofuckinglutely nothing to do today in ol Saskatoon, SK. Played a sweet show last night at this venue called The Club in Regina, SK but every kid there was under 18, most likely lived with their parents and therefor could not give us a place to stay. We got drunk off pizza and cruised Regina looking for a place to stay. We finally found nothing so we made some calls and got a girl in another town to put us up for the night. We drove 4 hours overnight to Saskatoon, SK and showed up at this girls house at 6:00am only be to kicked out at 9:30am.

We left her house in search of the mall. Finally found it and cruised around there for the better part of 3 hours. After that we realized it was only 1 in the afternoon and we still had nothing to do. We went to Pita Pit where the girl we stayed with worked where she did not hook up free or cheap food sadly. Bummed, we decided to head to the Saskatoon Public Library where I have now been for the last 2 hours trying not to blow my brains out. Matt is reading a book and Satan and all of the pictures have been taken out of it. Gabe is reading a book about Scientology and Tyler has a 3 x 3ft book about outer space.

Canada is pretty awesome so far (besides today). Their slushies are way different than ours. They're a lot thicker and has a wild intense sugar taste to them. I can't stop drinking them down. Cherry Dr Pepper slushie = best thing ever. Metal Kin Kins, get up here on your blackened wings and pick one up, it will change you. I've also been eating Lays Ketchup flavored chips and they are the best thing in the world. They straight up taste like french fries dipped in ketchup.

We're having a blast (once again...besides today). Tomorrow we play in Lethbridge, AB and will be in Alberta for 3 days. Canada is just America with better treats, accents and Canadian flags everywhere. They of course have the craziest bums I've ever met. Here's a few quotes from one we met in Winnipeg...

1. I have to wipe my ass with this white shirt! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

2. I don't need a babe...baby...sit...sitt....AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

3. (referring to his 2 friends)....who are those gay boys over there?

4. Yeah I used to play in a band. What was it called? AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

*quick update : right now in the library there is a bum passed out on a table and a security guard on the phone calling the real cops to come take care of him......more quotes...

5. You know Henry Armstrong? You know, he went to the fucking moon. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

6. CANNN YOUUUU DIGGGG ITTT MOTHA FUCKA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

7. I'm a street survivor. You guys got home, you got wives, you can kiss your own ass whenever you want. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

8. If Cheech comes back, tell him I went that way (then he walked into the venue)

Those are some of the wild quotes. After talking to us for a LONG time he finally walked away. Minutes later he approached Matt and I asking for a cigarette. He had completely forgotten that he had just been talking to us. Matt and I both got great video of him and a classic picture.

*that bum who is passed out is now trying to get woken up by his friend. I think he might be dead. He finally got up and walked away like he hadn't stood up for 30 years.

No idea where we're staying tonight. A roommate at the house we stayed at last night was pissed we were there so I don't think we'll be invited back. Dump life. Dead life. Shit life. Tour life. Ketchup Chips Life.

Winnipeg, MB

Holy shit. Started our day off early around 9:00am. Gabe, Matt and I woke up to clean out the Winnefaygo. We knew if we didn't drug dogs were gonna swarm the van and we were going to jail in Canada. After 2 hours of hard cleaning we finally got the van looking the way we wanted it to. We loaded up, ate some Pita Pit then hit I-94 to get to Canada. The drive was wet, foggy and cold as hell.

We finally got to the border and had problems right off the gun. Due to Matt's past run ins with the law it was looking like he wasn't going to get into Canada. We were sitting there trying to figure out what we were going to do with Matt if he couldn't get in. He honestly shouldn't be here with us right now. The dude at the immigration building told Matt he was cutting him some slack and that he probably wouldn't be able to get into Canada next time.

We rolled into Winnipeg and met up with Battle. We still had 2 hours until we had to be at the show so we decided to hit the streets and check out Winnipeg. Stopped at a Subway to get this "sub sauce" that is only available in Canada. It. Was. AWESOME! Then we went to this underground shopping mall that spanned a couple of city blocks. It ended in a 4 story library that was one of the biggest buildings I've ever been in. Stayed there for a bit then hit the road back to the show.

We played at this sweet record store / venue below a coffee shop called War On Music. A ton of kids showed up which was really awesome. I don't think anyone enjoyed us or Battle but it's whatever. Played with a sweet straight edge band called Ill Faded. We of course talked to thee CRAZIEST bum ever in the history of bums. I took some video of him and will for sure show all of you when we get home. This guy could not talk at all and had been stabbed multiple times. Even in his mouth . . .

We're now at this house waiting to hit up Salisbury House which is basically just IHOP. I've been told by multiple Canadians that I have to try Lays Ketchup flavored chips and their slushies. I'm bummed that I won't get a quality burrito until I'm back in America. I was told Taco Bell here SUCKS and their Mountain Dew doesn't have caffeine! What a wild place. Tomorrow we have a long ass drive to Regina, Saskatchewan. Having a great fucking time.

Read this article about Hercules from Naked City Magazine out of Wichita, KS

http://www.nakedcitywichita.com/2010/03/05/hercules-omahardcore/