For the bulk of the last month, we've been practically living in our practice space, getting ready for two big things:
1. Tour! The tour will bring us, for the first time, outside the borders of the U.S. Sure, it's not by much – only to Toronto – but it's a milestone nonetheless, and we've dying to get to Canada. We'll hit familiar cities (Philly, Pittsburgh, Columbus) as well as new ones (Toronto, Athens, Indianapolis, Detroit). We will also play some dates with our good buddies, Necropolis. The tour starts on May 30th, and it brings us back to New York by June 9th. We are currently working hard to secure a really amazing homecoming show, which will be our first New York performance since March 29.
2. Recording! We're going back into the studio to record with our producer, Dean Baltulonis! We'll be recording five songs in the four days directly preceding our tour. "Goes Cube Song 58," "Goes Cube Song 60," "Goes Cube Song 61," "Goes Cube Song 62," and "Goes Cube Song 63."
In the meantime, we hope you enjoy "Goes Cube Song 50." We'll make one of the newly recorded songs available shortly when we get home!
Magnetic Field has closed its doors after five years. This bar - and the people who ran it - were truly special to us. There are a hell of a lot more reasons than how they treated us that made this place great, but here’s how it goes from where we’re sitting:
Back in the day (specifically a day in 2004), Lee at Magnetic Field booked Goes Cube. This was back when we had exactly no press, and we were a duo who used a drum machine. If anyone was talking about us at all, it was to say "That band should get a drummer," and "That band has stupid song titles," and "That band has a stupid name." Now, instead, people just say we have stupid titles and a stupid name.
But we insisted on giving Goes Cube everything we had (like we still do), and Lee gave us the nod, booking us. We thought that maybe because the place is basically in our neighborhood, we could draw some friends there.
Instead, what happened was that we drew pretty much nobody.
They treated us incredibly well, and they were totally cool about the drum machine (many soundpeople were not, to be totally honest). I’m sure we didn’t exactly play well, and our songs weren’t so good anyways, so what does it matter?
Now, most clubs in New York don’t really like it when you draw about 3 paid. And they certainly aren’t eager to have you back.
(Apropos of that, here’s a true side story: Years ago, around the same time as this, someone at Sin-e asked us to fill in a last minute cancellation. It was a Sunday night, and they needed us to play the midnight slot the next day - a Monday. I explained we’d be able to draw absolutely no one since we had no following, and could only rely on our friends, but those people had jobs and wouldn’t be able to come out late. She said it wasn’t a problem, they just needed a band. In fact, she said, we’d be rewarded with a better slot some other time since we were doing them a favor. We came, we played, we drew no one. When I called them about playing a show there again - the better one that was promised to us - someone else at the club looked up the last time we played and then told me, as close as I can remember, "There are a lot of clubs in the area that will take total amateurs like you who don’t draw anyone and play for the bartender. Sin-e is for REAL bands." Later, we’d have our debut show as a trio at Sin-e. So, somewhere along the line, we became a real band. But that guy can go fuck himself anyway.)
Not only was Magnetic Field not pissed at us for drawing no one (they had a decent crowd of regulars there anyways, who did a good deal of drinking), they were downright encouraging. I apologized to Lee for not bringing anyone. He told me, "That will happen in time. For now, keep playing - you guys have a really cool sound!"
Over the years, we’d continually play Magnetic Field. And for the first few times, we didn’t bring many people. And yet Lee and Will both would shake our hands enthusiastically and thank us for playing, and would tell us how great we are and how unique we are.
And so when Kenny joined the band and the press sheet grew along with our local draw, we were always eager to go back to Magnetic Field and have shows there, and they would always welcome us with open arms.
One time, we were asked to play a show with Hopewell and Freshkills at a club in the LES. Then this club got offered what they considered a better show, so they went ahead and broke up the bill, fucking over some of the bands, but offering us a measly opening slot. But these bands are friends, so we wanted to keep the bill. We hit up a couple clubs, and even though it was last minute, Magnetic Field invited us to have the show. We did, and it was awesome - and we consider an important part of our friendships with those bands.
And that’s the kind of place Magnetic Field was for us. Not only a place that supported us from the start, but the kind of place that would continually demonstrate a sincerity and honesty and good-heartedness that is sometimes hard to find in New York.
Before we left for tour, Magnetic Field asked us to headline one of the nights of the BAM Next Festival. Which, of course, we did and we made it our tour kick-off. And then Will and Lee asked us to return one last time, and play with the Brought Low on their final Saturday of live music. And, of course, we did, and it was one of the best shows so far of the year.
I’m glad that Magnetic Field is closing not because of shitty landlords or whiny neighbors; but instead because Lee and Will feel it’s time to move on.
Along the way, we’ve had some people really go out on a limb for us: Ear Farm, Oh My Rockness, Stereogum, for example (there are others, too). Lee and Will and Magnetic Field are absolutely on that list.
In the end, thank you to Lee and Will and to everyone at Magnetic Field. It’s been an undeniably magnificent part of our history.
day 24: homecoming show 2 where we play as Dagger God at Magentic Field
Our second homecoming show was a secret show. In fact, we played under a different name: Dagger God. Lee and Will over at Magnetic Field asked us to play Magnetic Field’s second to last night. How could we say no (see the next post to see why I say that)? We played under another name because Union Pool was not entirely convinced that our homecoming bill was the best idea, but they took the risk probably because I’m so goddamned persistent (it turned out to be a great night and all was happy and they were totally cool about it). But because they rolled the dice on us, we didn’t want to split up our draw by having another show the very next night.
This show was probably my favorite show of the last month. And we’ve had damn good shows. First off, the pressure was off. We weren’t even playing under our real name, so no one had any real expectation that we’d sell the joint out. Another thing was that I didn’t organize the whole night. All we had to do was show up with our gear and play. And showing up with our gear at MF isn’t a problem because, hell, it’s practically in our neighborhood.
As an added bonus, we got to finally play with the Brought Low who we’d been hearing about more and more these last couple months (from trusted sources such as Freshkills). Now we know why: they absolutely shred.
And so basically the night goes like this: We get there: not a problem. We bring our stuff in: easy. We start drinking beers: never an issue. We set up: nice because we have time and because we’re playing first and we can leave it set up. People start showing up in droves, we’re told to go ahead and play. The sound is absolutely AWESOME. Blazingly loud as hell, but perfectly balanced.
I have to say that, personally, I think we played one of our tightest sets of the entire tour. Maybe THEE tightest set. And it was one of those nights that after the first song, we all just knew it was going to be a set where we were right on - all pistons firing.
Lots of amazing pictures were taken, and we had an incredible time.
Then, like I said, the Brought Low got on stage and effortlessly shredded through their amazing southern rock set.
day 23: homecoming show 1 where we play a great but stressful show
We played our first homecoming show at Union Pool. The bill was amazingly awesome for us. Look Mexico opened with some tight as hell, interesting pop-rock kind of stuff. Then our good buddies Constants took the stage, and played an incredible set. Probably one of my favorite ones I’ve seen by them, and that says a lot since they manage to blow me away every time. I don’t even know how to describe their sound without saying something corny and dumb like "intoxicating." It’s kind of metal. It’s kind of psychedic. It has a lot of reverb. It’s fucking awesome. Then we played, and I think we did pretty good. Really big crowd (that made us happy). Then Hull got up there and stole the show with their set of epic metal/thrash. Someone needs to fucking explain to me how Hull isn’t on tour with Mastodon or Slayer or Neurosis or all of the above.
All in all, it was a good night, and the staff at the venue seemed really stoked to have had the show. I had a hard time enjoying myself, ’cos I organized the whole thing, and there were very strict set and changeove times that had to be observed, and then there was gear shares to be coordinated. Etc. Etc. Putting on shows in NYC is no easy task, and every time I do it, and I’m continually reminded to never take for granted the people that do this for us. Also gives you a renewed appreciation for how easy it is when you play a show you don’t book: You show up, you drink beer, you play music. Not exactly the most strenuous stuff.
Glad to be home, glad to play with a bunch of utterly fantastic bands, glad to play for a really big friendly crowd. Glad for it it be over with without one of the band’s sets getting cut off, or without the booker being pissed ’cos we didn’t make the place enough money, etc.
In order to understand what it means for us to play Philadelphia, you must first understand our past experiences in Philadelphia:
1st Philly show: We played the Pontiac Grill (Grille?), and between a prima donna band who treated the venue like it was their debut at Carnegie Hall, and a soundguy who absolutely zero control over the bands, our set got shuffled around and finally we were told we’d be playing last when we were supposed to be playing 2nd. We took the stage to start setting up at 1:48am, and the soundguy then told us all music would have to be over by 2am. We had 12 minutes to set up and play a set.
2nd Philly show: Philosophically speaking, if you play for zero people, does that mean you actually played a show?
3rd Philly show: ditto.
So we’ve been getting it in our minds that despite Philly being an interesting city, Goes Cube is not destined to have a good show there. And yet, we keep trying. I guess we like having something to complain about...
...but...
There’s nothing to complain about!
We played the Fire (one of the places we had played before) and we got to play with our good friend Paul Michel who was backed by his backing band, The Bad Touch, who features members of our friends, Abigial Warchild.
They were, in an awfully overused word, awesome. Paul has an incredible voice. The band was tight. The songs are amazing.
We played for a good crowd of people, and the sound was strong. We even sold a bit of merch. It’s not that it was the best show of the tour, but it was fairly solid. And we left really happy.
Unfortunately we did not have time to stick around and watch American Sweetheart, who helped booked the show AND bought a t-shirt, or Captain To Co-Pilot, who were super nice guys, bought lots of stuff, and said great things.
It’s a pretty standard policy for us to stick around and watch all the bands, especially when they’ve done the same for us. But we had 100 miles to cover, and our beds beckoned. Plus, we have our homecoming show tonight, and when you’re playing with bands like Look Mexico, Constants, and Hull, you have to be on top of your game.
It’s been an amazing tour. They keep getting better. It’ll be a fun weekend - a good way to cap it off.
day 21: Richmond, where we play at a sushi restaurant...and it’s rad
It was our first time playing Richmond, and we got to kick off our short time in the city with a good old state capital pic. (We’ll be posting a new batch soon.) We were definitely excited for the show. For one thing, Richmond is home to bands like Avail. So, they like their loud/punkish music. For another thing, we were playing at Nara Sushi. And all we knew about Nara Sushi was that it was a sushi restaurant, and that it has punk/hardcore/metal shows almost every night. Where we’re from those two things are never paired, so we were quite interested to see how it would go.
We got to the venue around 7 or 7:30. We found that it seems to be located in the middle of a college campus area - VCU. Didn’t know it was a college area, but that makes sense. The helpful person at Nara Sushi explained that we didn’t really need to get there till 9:30 or so, because the shows don’t start till after the restaurant closed. But we mentioned we were hungry, she said she’d see about setting us up with some food. What followed was the most sushi ever served to a single party ever, ever, ever. This put us in excellent spirits. Couple that with a couple beers and even a hot sake, and we were plenty content to hang around and wait for the show to begin.
Sure enough, the other bands started showing up: Snorklewacker, Pharmacy, and Onion. The restaurant gradually closed down, and the PA system quickly got set up. We chatted with the other bands (Pharmacy has been on the road for awhile, too, and we were actually supposed to play with them in Houston at Super Happy Fun Land, but the club had to cancel the whole week of shows), and looked on as this very unassuming sushi restaurant turned into a DIY punk/hardcore venue.
And, as if looking at that 3-D art stuff, for a brief moment, I GOT it: Atypical establishment, musicians. Vegetarian friendly food, people who are really artsy. Sushi...punk rock. Just as quickly, it faded away as I noticed that I was now standing in the middle of a room where a hardcore kid with a crooked hat was eating salmon rolls with one hand, drinking a Sparks with another hand, and a band that was dressed vaguely like Gwar was loading in not only instruments, but pinatas filled with onions.
And so Snorklewacker took to the stage first and blasted out aggressive, quick, and rather furious punk numbers one after the other. Next up was Pharmacy. Not really a punk band, Pharmacy is rather a noisy but poppy but sometimes aggressive band that is probably best (and most ambiguously) described as "indie." They had a nice little local following of kids wearing their t-shirt, which was impressive considering they’re from Seattle. We watched about half their set, then had to go out to the van to get our gear out and start staging it on the sidewalk in preparation for loading it in. But since the bands play right next to the window, we had no problem hearing the rest of their set, which sounded great even from the street.
We were a little concerned though, because it seemed that most people their were straight out punks or they were kids with Pharmacy t-shirts who did not look like they would EVER like our music. And, in fact, I do think most kids who specifically came to see Pharmacy did just that: came to see Pharmacy, and then took off with their mission being accomplished.
But when we took the stage, we found a bigger crowd than we were expecting, and they were way more eager to hear us than we thought they’d be. And when we started playing, they pumped their fists and nodded their heads and screamed "yeah!!!!" a ton more than we thought they would.
And when the next band took the stage, it made sense as to why we had a good audience: Anyone there to see Onion (who I gather has a pretty decent local following) must not mind hearing punked out, loud as hell, brutal metal-like music. Energy and heaviness, both Goes Cube and Onion are on the same level.
But there are differences, too: Onion was in costume. Their songs all seemed to be comical in terms of their lyrical content, and then there were the onion pinata things... Definitely something we don’t do, but makes for an entertaining thing to watch.
We loaded up the van and met great people. Mark, who booked the show, was kind and generous and gave us good thoughts about the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia. And then we headed out in search of beds - after all, it would be our last night sleeping outside of New York for this tour.
day 20: Chapel Hill rules, and people stop us on the street and become our merch girls.
This was another top show. The whole Chapel Hill experience was pretty awesome. First of all, have I mentioned that Hammer No More The Fingers are seriously an amazing band, and really awesome people? We’re getting very lucky with bands we tour with. The Giraffes, Hull, Freshkills, Foreign Islands, Hammer No More The Fingers: amazing people - all of them.
They headlined the show and they slayed the crowd. And they really brought the people out, too.
We played at a place called Hell. AMAZING venue. Dive bar, good stage, good and simple sound set up. Great staff.
We opened for Hammer No More, and there was a pretty big crowd. They were totally into it. We played well. Awesome. Just a really great show.
Here’s the thing I want to write about, though: Our merch girls.
So we rolled into Chapel Hill earlier than we roll into most of the places we play. Usually we get to the city at 4 or 4:30, go bowling, rush to the club for load-in by 6 or so. But this time we go to Chapel Hill around 1:30 or 2. We found the venue (just to know where it is), and then decided, let’s park the car and enjoy the beautiful weather. Keep in mind, this is a college campus, and we’re 3 nearly-thirty-year olds wearing very tattered clothing (my army shirt has now lost 4 of its 6 buttons) and very big unkempt beards.
So we walk about, oh, one block when a girl with a skateboard simply stops us and says without any hello or anything: "Where are you guys from?" We said, New York, and explained we were on tour. She was like, oh cool, you guys don’t blend in at all and so I was wondering, and my name is Hadley, and asked us some questions, and we basically said, hey we’re just hanging out, we don’t know our way around, and she said, "Come on, let’s go get popsicles." Haven’t had a popsicle in about, oh, 15 years.
So we go get popsicles. I had a mojito flavored one, and damn it was good. We tell her she should come to the show, and she says yeah, and says can i get on the list, and we were like hell yeah, sure, why not.
She says goodbye at the popsicle place, and we go find a wall to sit on so we can nap/relax/make jokes. Then we go bowling.
Then we drive back to the venue to load in. We’re stopped at a red light, and who is standing right there? Hadley with a friend, Nicole. They come up to the window, and Nicole says oh you must be Goes Cube, ’cos you all have ridiculous beards, I’m coming to the show, but hey can I get on the list with her.
We say come meet us at the venue. And then we decide, OK why don’t you just load in with us as our crew-members. Yeah, they joke, we can be your merch girls. Yeah, perfect.
So we load-in, and it’s all good. And then, we’re like, hey but for real, you should be our merch girls. The problem is, we’re bad at selling merch ’cos the time when people go to buy your stuff is right after you play, which is when the three of us are putting our gear away. So there’s no one there to actually sell the CDs. By the time you’re done clearing your gear, the next band has started and most of the people who had intended to buy stuff have now gone to the stage to watch the band.
So they’re like, hey we’ve sold merch before. And they set our stuff up at a table with some signage, and wait for the performance. Again, we performed well and the crowd was great.
But, really the big thing was the sales. Our sales went up roughly 500%, and that is a very low estimate. 1000% would also be accurate.
In addition to our not being there to actually sell the CDs and t-shirts on normal nights, consider that our music really appeals more to males. Who do you think metal head, beer-drinking males want to talk to more: Other beer-drinking guy in lumberjack/army shirt, or girl sitting there smiling at them?
And then we got put up for the night by Graham and Emily. They put us up last year in Chapel Hill. They’re really not very good hosts, though, what with letting us sleep in until as late as we want, cleaning their place for us, and buying us dinner and having it be waiting for us when we get to their place.
Graham and Emily are very close friends with Matt EarFarm.
So here are the two discoveries we made in Chapel Hill: 1) Any time we stay with someone closely associated with Matt EarFarm, we get to lounge in luxury, we get free delicious food, and we get good rest (see last year’s tour blog about where we stayed after our show in San Diego). 2) Merch girls are a good thing.
And that was Chapel Hill. Thanks so much Graham, Emily, Nicole, and Hadley.
day 19: Crack Soup (a former crack house); we meet up with HMNTF
From one house party to the next. We played at a place called Crack Soup, named that because it used to be a Crack house. Now, it’s a house where all ages punk shows happen. This was the show where we met up with Hammer No More The Fingers (a Raleigh band who we played with the next day).
We played first, and we really shouldn’t have. But there was concern about the cops showing up, and the show was running late, and there was also concern as to whether or not a lot of people would show up. And so when the people who ran the house saw that there was already a pretty good crowd (say 40 or 50 people), they told us to go ahead and start ’cos it might have been as good as it could get.
We played well. But the audience consisted almost entirely of teenaged ska and gutter punk kids. We are not a ska band. Nor are we a gutter punk band, but we do have some punkish parts to some of our songs. And so the crowd really reacted the way I had thought they would: They spent part of our set looking perplexed as we made our way through our instrumental passages. And then they’d enthusiastically bob their heads to our punk parts.
I think it would have been better if the punk bands went first and got the kids into show-mode. Going first means you have to warm people up. I think it’s best to warm people up with a friendly type of music.
It wasn’t bad, and we sold a few CDs.
The real fun was meeting Hammer No More The Fingers. They are an amazing band who are way cleaner cut than us. They play with just as much force and fury, but they have a cleaner more "indie" sound than us. So it’s actually a cool match. And those dudes are really funny and really sweet.
They got the same treatment as we did. The three of us stood up front shouting "YEEEEAAAAAHHHH" the whole time.
Then the ska and punk bands played. This was the classic stuff. Minor Threat covers, breakdowns, etc. The three of us were really about twice the age of most the kids. The Hammer No More guys are just a few years younger than us. So it was pretty funny to people when the six of us decided to jump in the moshpit. One girl said to me "it’s really that you guys moshed - older bands never do that."
It was a fun night. Wouldn’t say it was the best show, but considering it was the Monday after Easter, this was probably one of the best shows we could have played.
Happy Easter! We didn’t take the night off. Instead, we played a house party in Atlanta at a house called Soundlab 84, run by a band called Missile Command (who needs to some day share a bill with my side-project, Frauke). Also on the bill was a band from South Carolina called The Unawares.
Missile Command played first and were amazing. They were total chaos and weirdness. They smashed a tv, even. The Unawares took the stage, and in my opinion really killed it. These were very unassuming guys, and if you didn’t ask them, you wouldn’t have known they were in a band. They played some really interesting early 80s punk/new wave type stuff, and they did it well.
We played well. It was one of those weird shows where there was a big crowd, but they were a tough read in terms of how into they were. I kept thinking they were kind of not into it. But when we got done, we had people crowding around saying the most amazingly positive things. One person even hugged us. And for the rest of the night, people kept telling us what a good show it was.
Another band (featuring some members of Missile Command) did an impromptu set after us, and put on a great show. The cops showed up, neighbors started complaining. Show over. Like I said: happy easter.
