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FINAL #TYRANNY10 EVENT ON APRIL 29, IN DC!

tedleo — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 19:55:06 +0000

NEW PLAN – help us finish out the 10th anniversary year of the release of “The Tyranny of Distance” (released in May 2001) by joining us for a concert at one of our homes away from all our homes, the Black Cat, in the city where the album was made, Washington, DC, on Sunday, April 29th! We will be performing a full set of career-spanning material that will include a final performance of the “Tyranny” LP in its entirety; but THAT’S NOT ALL – original album engineer Brendan Canty (Deadline, Brief Weeds) will be making a PROFESSIONAL CONCERT FILM of the whole thing for us to do something with at some point in the not too distant future. So please come – sing along, clap out of time, get the back of your head (or your front from the waist up) in the film – I don’t think I’m jinxing it when I say this will be a really good night. –TICKETS HERE–

(Return of) THE BLENDER ’50 WORST SONGS’ BUSKING EXPERIMENT

tedleo — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:27:11 +0000

Seeing 4 NonBlondes’ name pop up a bunch of times on Twitter over the last few days (not gonna try and figure out why) reminded me of this thing I did for Blender 8 years ago.
Given that 8 years is approximately 32 generations in blog years, I’ll just remind you that Blender was a music magazine. The “print” kind.
Also, get off my lawn.

Anyway, this is something I wrote on my old web site back then, when this thing that happened happened (and I want to apologize for how I trashed Starship’s entire catalog, but…):

FEBRUARY 26, 2004

The Blender 50 Worst Songs of All Time
So I did this thing this afternoon — Blender Magazine is putting out an issue of what their staff decided are the 50 worst songs of all time. I differ with them on a few, and would have added some others if I was asked, but I wasn’t. What I WAS asked to do, however, was to learn 5 of them and go busk them in Union Square this afternoon. The writers would assess crowd reactions, change earned, take photos, etc., for the article. I didn’t exactly jump at the chance, but after a few hours consideration, it started sounding funnier and funnier, so I decided to go for it. It was, actually, really funny (and fun). Here’s my take on the set:

WE BUILT THIS CITY (Starship)
Strategy: Open with a bang!
My assessment:
Feeble attempt at youth rebellion by an aging band that was always the most cartoony, and thus least credible of the SF psych scene in the 60s, and went on to bring us even MORE clunkers in the 80s, the only bright exception to an otherwise completely horrible catalog being the pretty cool song, “Find Your Way Back.” Unfortunately, I wasn’t asked to play their one “pretty cool song,” so I got to stare passersby in the eyes today and belt out lines like, “Who drives the wrecking ball into our guitars???” and “Say you don’t know me or recognize my face/Say you don’t care who goes, to THAT kind of place!” Huh?
Crowd reaction:
No one stopped for this one. I think it’s still a little too commonly heard on the radio for it to have registered as strong a question in people’s minds as some of the others. The general reaction seemed to be side-long glances with crooked smiles and a slight shake of the head, as if to say, “Oh no, that poor fool playing Starship in Union Square on such a chilly day…”
Change received during song: $0.00

I WANNA SEX YOU UP (Color Me Badd)
Strategy: Keep ‘em dancing.
My assessment:
What can be said? At least they were better than 98 Degrees. Best/worst line: “Let me light a candle so we can make it better/Makin’ love until we drown.” Now what liquid medium, exactly, are they making love in that puts them in danger of drowning? The world will never know…
Crowd reaction:
Again, a little less enthusiastic/vitriolic than I had hoped for. Apparently, in Jonah’s crowd interviews, he found that a lot of people actually didn’t remember the song at all (I tried to do as traditional a version as could be done with only ONE white dude and an acoustic guitar, but…). Even my blatant attempts to goad reactions by making creepy eye contact with both ladies and gentlemen while singing the chorus, “I wanna sex you up,” was met with indifference. Oh well. Even so, I got a little change on this one.
Change received during song: approx. $1.25

FROM A DISTANCE (Bette Midler)
Strategy: Take it down a notch.
My assessment:
This should maybe have been in the number one worst slot — melodramatic pap with a vaguely Christian social conscience that pushes no buttons whatsoever. Mountains, oceans, eagles, no hunger, only friends, etc. A lot of people don’t recognize the fangs that John Lennon’s “Imagine” actually has. This is what that song would be completely de-fanged and de-venomed, with music written by the lady who played the church organ at funerals at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Bloomfield, New Jersey in 1982.
Crowd reaction:
There were more sideways glances with broader crooked smiles for this one, and even a few seemingly awe-struck listeners who actually backed away, but couldn’t take their eyes off of me — I felt like they didn’t know if they were watching something serious and holy, or the train-wreck that it actually was. I witnessed a few faces that evinced real confusion on this one. The question was answered when, in the middle of my second time through this song, god seemingly WAS watching us, and let the cold pop my E-string just as I invoked his name. A fitting end.
Change received during song: approx. $1.00

WHAT’S UP? (4 Non-Blondes)
Strategy: Crescendo/Climax
My assessment:
The only thing that saves this song from the land of the unlistenable is that Linda Perry chose three good chords for the only three chords she plays in the whole song — A, Bm, and D — that’s a pretty hard progression to argue with. Sometimes, when I wonder how the hell she got where she is today, I have to remember that she at least knows those three good chords, and how to put them together. That said, I cry sometimes when I’m lying in bed, just to get it all out, what’s in my head, and I’m… AAAAArgh! It’s this friggin’ song that’s still stuck in my head!! It seems that out of the five I chose, it’s the one that’s most stuck in other people’s heads, too. A few people actually stopped to listen to the entire song this time — some even bouncing and singing along. Lot’s of broad, un-crooked smiles from passersby — I think we discovered a widely held NON-guilty pleasure with this one.
Change received during song: approx. $1.75

PARTY ALL THE TIME (Eddie Murphy)
Strategy: Denouement
My assessment:
Rick James also knew a good chord progression when he found one. In this case, he didn’t even need to progress off the first chord, an Am (at least in the key I could best sing it), which doesn’t change for the entire, long verses of the song. This turned out to be the biggest crowd grabber, though — it seemed like it took a second to sink in with most people, but once they remembered it, they were into it. It was also during the first time through this song, though, that the crazies (craziers?) started gathering — the leather/goth dude eating chips and salsa, the well dressed young gentleman who emerged from the subway on my right and stood and stared until I finished, then walked toward me as if he were concealing a shiv to put us all out of my misery with, but instead dropped a bunch of coins in the guitar case, and the guy in the all-striped outfit (hat, sweater, pants, socks — all differently striped, unless my memory deceives me) who looked like a larger, stripier version of Jeff Daniels, etc. But the thing is, they, and all the young B-boys and B-girls, New Wave of Yuppie yuppies, frustrated service industry folks, and leisure-class skateboarders, all got a little extra shake in their step from this one, and that made me happy. I mean, we all empathize with both characters in this song — the guy who’s bummed that his girl parties all the time, and the girl who wants to party all the time — something for everyone — EVERYTHING for everyone!
Change received during this song: approx. $2.75

Actual total change received: $6.76 (given to the one homeless guy who sat there and watched the whole damn thing)
Lessons learned:
Only that outdoor busking in February is probably not as fun as it might be in May. Learning the songs taught me nothing, which is probably why I feel karmically o.k. about having participated!!

A STATEMENT FROM LOOKOUT! RECORDS

tedleo — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:08:05 +0000

Intense couple of weeks, here on the internet! HERE is a statement from our friends at Lookout on the topic of their decision to finally cease all label operations:

——–
Hard to say goodbye

I’m not sure exactly where exactly to start but I guess it’s best to get the hard part out of the way. To put it simply, what was mentioned recently on Ted Leo’s website (and reported in by a number of other outlets online) is true. Lookout Records will be closing its doors over the next few months. Most people that are reading this know that the label stopped releasing material towards the end of 2005. It was then that Lookout ended its long relationships with Green Day, Operation Ivy and a few other artists. That development meant significantly scaling down the business, which included letting the staff go and moving from the label’s Berkeley headquarters and warehouse into a small office. It was a challenging time for everyone involved – bands, staff, and business partners. For myself and the other two owners at the time, Cathy and Molly, we resolved to put our limited resources into rectifying some of the issues and problems that had been Lookout’s undoing, return to a modest operation, with the hopes of first, getting things back on track, and hopefully doing more in the future.

To many, that would have been the perfect time to wind things up with Lookout Records, but we decided not to. Sure, sales were down across the board and Lookout no longer had many of its long-standing top sellers in its catalog. There were artists that were committed to sticking with the label and shared our hope of fixing the problems and being able to find our way through a difficult period and create new successes. This was the inspiration we needed and over the next few years, with hard work we were able to simplify label operations to a large extent. With the help of folks like Ali, Andy, and later, Spenser pitching in, we focused on playing catch-up and on top of new developments.

It wasn’t easy to keep catalog items in print and that became especially challenging when our primary compact disc manufacturer and our distribution partner Lumberjack-Mordam went out of business unexpectedly. Having our physical distributor and a manufacturer go belly up disrupted our sales, meant a significant loss of income, and caused inventory and accounting problems. The next year when our mail order partner, Little Type, went out of business, Lookout was also dealt another significant blow. We did our best to resolve the issued caused by these developments but both ultimately amounted to a lot more work and severely impacted income.

By this time, it was primarily Cathy and myself overseeing Lookout’s business. This was done in whatever spare time we could find, as both of us had other jobs. Molly had minimized her involvement with the label, remaining a valued and trusted adviser. The label’s sole employee was Spenser, who came in to our small office space in Oakland to handle day to day stuff a couple times a week.

Last summer, we began tentatively discussing what it might mean to let Lookout end. It was a strange and scary to talk about at first and hard for either of us to imagine what it would be like. Lookout Records had been part of my life for over 20 years and Cathy is a label veteran with over 15 years of experience at Lookout. We considered all options but kept coming back to realization that the best use of our energies would be to shut the doors once and for all – for the legacy of the label, for the bands, and for benefit of the relationships and friendships with artists, partners, and stakeholders. After some soul searching, hat’s what we decided to do.

Right now, we are in the process of going through years and years of archives and figuring out what to do with things that have no obvious home. Inventory, masters, artwork – that’s all going back to the artists. We’ve talked to some bands but not all of them. If you were in a band and haven’t heard from Cathy or myself, definitely get in touch. Our efforts to close out Lookout’s remaining business reflect the same intentions we’ve had for the past few years – to do the best we can by the bands. It’s our hope that this could be an opportunity for the artists themselves to revisit their Lookout releases, with interesting and cool results. It’s time to let Lookout Records really and truly become history.

Thank you. Thanks for listening to the music, going to shows, coming in our store, forming bands, sending us demos, buying records from our mail order, signing to our label, wearing a t-shirt, playing our records on your radio show, putting us up on your living room floor, writing fan mail, interviewing us for your zine, putting on a show, for inspiring us, for being inspired by Lookout, for your hard work, for just being there, and for ALL of the memories (there are so many). Thank you. Here’s to you, and to whatever comes next…

Thanks, Chris

P.S. We’ll continue to update this site from time to time, with stories, information or anything cool that we come across that seems worth sharing. You’re welcome to come back and visit.
——–

And there you have it. Sad, it is; but so many of those who have worked there over the years remain my friends and I wish all of them the best in all their future endeavors. I’m proud and honored to have been able to be part of the history of Lookout Records.

LOOKOUT! IST KAPUTT.

tedleo — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 18:23:15 +0000

I’ve been getting a lot of Twitter questions about why a bunch of my records have disappeared from all the digital services (Sportify, iDudes, Mandora, etc.). It’s because our beloved Lookout Records, which ceased releasing new material in 2006, but carried on keeping the catalog in print until this past December, has, sadly, shuttered it’s windows for good. A better eulogy should be forthcoming, but just to answer these questions, this means that these records have reverted to my complete ownership, which is kind of cool in some ways, I guess, except that it also means I have to basically run my own label for them now unless I wind up licensing them to someone else in the future. In the immediate, I have to go through some legal stuff with the digital services to get the records back up online, and I’m hoping to have that all taken care of very soon. Physical records are now officially out of print and will likely not be repressed for a while (but I’m sure I’ll get around to it eventually). I do have a bunch of stock laying around with no plans to tour for quite a while, so if there’s interest, maybe I’ll set up a web-store so you can buy direct from me if you want. Please feel free to email or tweet me with ideas for that. All entertaining ideas will be entertained!
And thank you, seriously, for giving a crap. I’m not happy to see Lookout gone, but having complete rights of usage and total and direct revenue from sales now, can ultimately turn this into a positive situation. I just have to get creative about it. Might try to bang one out more special
Tyranny of Distance event before the 10th anniversary year is over this spring…

CHRISTMAS BEYOND THE WALL…

tedleo — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 17:43:50 +0000

Formless at the beginning, then gathering shape as they pass from the other world into this, the dark shadows congeal into blackened forms of ancient hate, and gather in the hoarfrost of the primeval forest to worship at the foot of the Tree of Wights, droning their nameless and wordless chants until the tree, itself, release the spirits of the damned, stored in its cold waves of wood, freeing them for this one night of their accursed, screaming eternity, to vent their aeons of torture upon a still sleeping world of humans.

SELF-EMPOWERING BREAKUP MIX FOR @manateeRfriends

tedleo — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:57:22 +0000

Here you go, @manateeRfriends. It’s obviously by no means complete, but it’s the best I could manage this morning. I pulled what I could from Youtube, and recorded a couple of junky versions of two songs I wanted to include but couldn’t find by the original artists. You’re gonna be awesome, and you’re gonna ace your exams!!

First, you’re gonna keep doing the right thing by calling on your friends and taking solace in music!
Dexy’s Midnight Runners, “Plan B”

Then, you’re gonna remember that, though there may be wet road ahead, you cannot slip!
Curtis Mayfield, “Move on Up”

Then you’re gonna realize that nobody hurts you harder than yourself (which means the others have no power)!
Graham Parker, “Nobody Hurts You”

So you’re gonna take a look in the mirror and say “I’m GOOD, and good things don’t come easy – I’m worth working for!”
Irma Thomas, “Good Things Don’t Come Easy”

Then, you’re gonna LISTEN TO ME, when I tell you, “you need to be free!”
Urge Overkill, “Dropout”

And, by now, you’re thinking, “I’m picking myself up from under this table!”
Thin Lizzy, “Fighting my Way Back”

Next, you’re gonna be like, “Yo – bunk this mess – I’m movin’ on!”
Joe Crow, “Compulsion”

And then you REALIZE, “Dag, yo – I can do ANYTHING I wanna DO!”
Eddie and the Hot Rods, “Do Anything You Wanna Do”

So, then you’re all, “No time for standing still – there’s another void (somewhere) that I can fill!”
Descendents, “Ace”

So you get through that, and you’re like, “That was a pretty rough day, but I made it through – time to celebrate with the people who care and who helped!”
Depeche Mode, “Black Celebration”

Then you settle down, and you think about tomorrow, and how it’s a new day and all that, and you feel this rough patch passing already.
George Harrison, “All Things Must pass”

The you wake up the next day, and you’re like, “You know what? This is a friggin’ blip on the radar! I got my whole life ahead of me and deeper and more important things to come. That crap was a tiny rivulet – I’m sailin’ the goddamned SEA!”
The Waterboys, “This is the Sea”

Then you remember, “Oh snap – Ted Leo actually recorded two songs really crappily right into his laptop mic yesterday morning for me because he wanted to include them, but couldn’t find them on Youtube!” And you listen, and you get psyched.
(hopefully)
Matthew Sweet, “Get Older”
Matthew Sweet’s “Get Older” by tedleo

Ciaran Murphy, “Tomorrow Belongs to You”
Ciaran Murphy’s “Tomorrow Belongs to You” by tedleo

And tomorrow, once again, belongs to you.

HEAVY PROG/PSYCH/PROTO-DOOM/ETC. YOUTOOBERY

tedleo — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 23:55:07 +0000

Long story short: Vance the Puppet, a couple of Twitter followers, (and my own proclivities) led me down a worm-hole from 11 PM to 3 AM last night. If you follow me on Twitter, you might’ve witnessed the carnage. The upshot of it all, is that there were *WAY* too many bands that used “heavy Hammond” and wound up sounding like Uriah Heep throwaways, but there WERE some gems. Here’re a few that I hit on last night:

The Way We Live, “King Dick II”

New Lords, “Power”

18 Karat Gold, “Flying”

High Tide, “Death Warmed Up”

Pärson Sound, “India (slight return)”

Life, “Sailing in The Sunshine”

Poe, “Tune In”

Lucifer Was, “Teddy’s Sorrow”
(And indeed, it is my sorrow that I had to include it)

A to Austr, “Thumbquakes and Earthscrew”

MEMORIES OF FUGAZI SHOWS PAST, ON THE OCCASION OF THE LAUNCH OF THEIR LIVE ARCHIVE

tedleo — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 19:17:47 +0000

NPR is collecting memories of Fugazi shows for a piece they’re doing on the launching of the Fugazi Live Archive on Dec. 1. I’m not sure if what I sent will be used, or, if it is, when, but regardless, I thought I’d just throw them up here (with some meta-data!) as well, in case anyone’s interested…

1.) Fugazi at The Anthrax, Norwalk, Ct., late 1987 or early 1988 – this was one of their first shows ever, I believe, and certainly the first time I ever heard anyone suggest that slam dancing/moshing might possibly be not the best use of one’s energy. I didn’t agree at the time, but I did respect the band’s wish that the audience not mosh. However, there were some friends of theirs who’d driven up from DC and who were grabbing people in the pit, physically stopping them from dancing, which I thought was ridiculous and thuggish, if not downright fascist (in the language of 17/18 year old me, which is not a whole hell of a lot different from that of 41 year old me) and at least as bad as the negative aspects of the slamming, itself, which they were railing against; and I told Ian I thought so, in a letter I wrote in red ink. He wrote back and explained that they came of their own accord, and that he didn’t see that happening and doesn’t condone it. He also explained a little bit more about what was behind this “no slam dancing” idea – which, at the time, you have to realize, was INSANELY radical in the punk world. Years later, after I’d moved to DC and we’d become friends, he put two and two together and assured me that he still has my letter, and has occasionally threatened to embarrass me by whipping it out. But I wouldn’t be embarrassed. I’m pretty proud of the both of us for the whole interaction!

2.) Fugazi at Maxwell’s, Hoboken, NJ summer 1988 – The usual confrontations with the crowd over slamming came to a head when, toward the end of the quiet breakdown in the song, “Suggestion,” the walls, themselves, dripping with sweat and practically heaving, as if the room was the interior of a giant heart beating through the most important hour of it’s life, Ian says something simple, like, “Here comes the breakdown,” and an angry skin in the middle of the pit says back, “Can we DANCE to this part?” Ian looks him in the eye and says, rising from a spoken question to a scream, moving upward as the music surges to a crescendo along with his voice, “Why don’t you listen for JUST – ONE – SECOOOOOOOOOOND!!!” They crashed into the chorus off that and the room exploded. Incidentally, this was the show that the front cover of the first record came from.

3.) Fugazi at Wilson Center, Mount Pleasant, DC, summer 1997 – This was their 10th anniversary show. It was everything you’d think seeing Fugazi in a municipal rec. center basement where so many of them and the rest of the harDCore community got their start would be: noise, melody, aggression, beauty, frustration, catharsis, etc. At that point in my life, I was approaching 30 and wondering where this path was taking me. It took me, a couple of weeks ago, right back to another church basement in Mt. Pleasant, DC, which is pretty much exactly what I hoped would happen as I rode my friend’s moped all over the city until about 4 AM after that Fugazi show, thinking about it all.

MONDAY 11/21 – LAST MINUTE BENEFIT FOR THE LAWYERS GUILD, IN SOLIDARITY W/ALL THOSE FEELING THE BRUNT OF THE BATON AND THE CINCH OF THE ZIP TIES

tedleo — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 23:58:52 +0000

FOLKS! We’re playing a last minute benefit show at Shea Stadium in Brooklyn THIS MONDAY NIGHT, 11/21, organized by and playing with TITUS ANDRONICUS and THE SO SO GLOS!!

It’s been an emotional week, and somewhere between feeling powerless reading the news all morning, feeling inspired joining in with the marches in the afternoon, and getting on stage to play music for and to and with people, every night, I think we all remembered where a particular strength of ours lies, and we felt we should contribute in the way that seems most natural to us.
So here’s the relevant information:
MONDAY NIGHT
NOVEMBER 21st
SHEA STADIUM
20 MEADOW STREET, BROOKLYN NY
8:00 PM

TED LEO AND THE PHARMACISTS
TITUS ANDRONICUS
THE SO SO GLOS

FIFTEEN DOLLARS
BUY TICKETS AT MAIN DRAG BUSHWICK SUPPLY ANNEX
268 MESEROLE ST, BROOKLYN
BEGINNING AT NOON, MONDAY

TICKET SALES WILL BE CAPPED AT 200
THERE WILL BE NO TICKETS AT THE DOOR
I REPEAT, ABSOLUTELY NO TICKETS AT THE DOOR

ALL PROCEEDS TO BENEFIT
THE NATIONAL LAWYER’S GUILD
http://www.nlg.org/occupy/

ALL AGES
ALL RACES
ALL CREEDS
ALL CLASSES
ALL SEXUALITIES

There’s so much more to say about it, and we’ll say it together, in person, Monday night.

In the meantime, Patrick Stickles (from Titus), wrote up an explanation that I don’t think there’s much more to add to, so I’m going to just reprint it here:

FAQ:

“How are you going to act like you are all righteous? All yr doing is what yr managers and booking agents tell you to do!”

Actually, no. I just got out my cell piece, buzzed my man Ted Leo, told him that war had broken out, heard him say that he saw it also, pooled the strength and enthusiasm of Titus with that of him and his Pharmacists, quickly came upon an agreed course of action, and that was it. No managers, no booking agents, no handlers, no advisers, no publicists, no nothing. Just some Jersey boys seeing that the world is fucked up and pledging to devote whatever meager strength and energy we may have to its correction, as is the charge of every person who has enjoyed the birth right which is our beautiful Earth.

“How can you have this show at Shea Stadium? This bill could fill a bigger place. Why are you denying people who would want to see you play, or, for that matter, turning away more money?”

Because real, sustainable change will only ever begin at home, amongst communities of people who know each other, who trust each other, and who love each other. I like the people who keep, say, the Music Hall of Williamsburg open for business – I like them very much – but I do not love them. They are friends, for sure, but real change must be made with family.

Furthermore, a solitary evening at Shea Stadium demands administrative costs of zero dollars. If there was any other place in town that could maybe make a promise like that, that would be one thing, but I somehow guess that, because they are businesses (and I respect local business), there would have to be some kind of overhead. Because the times are so dire and the urgency of the situation so serious, to allow even one dollar to get mislaid is poison to our hearts.

Besides that, Shea Stadium is, bar none, the best venue in town. It has all the charms and righteous virtues of the DIY scene and the technology to compete with any place in town sonically.

“Why are you giving yr money to the National Lawyer’s Guild? Aren’t they all working pro bono anyway?”

Well, yeah, but the fact of the matter is that human rights need to be defended by someone, and it has become excruciatingly clear that the NYPD lacks both the ability and the wherewithal to even attempt to do so. If the police will not defend our rights, we will find someone else who will. These lawyers have been massively generous, and we will look forward to putting three thousand dollars into their pockets, so that they may eat, be sheltered, be clothed, and so forth, while they are putting aside their own capitalist dreams for a cause bigger than themselves. We should all be so brave and so generous as these lawyers.

Also, my father was a lawyer for many years, a corporate lawyer, and it was this work that paid for the many privileges I enjoyed as a youth (most relevantly, the privilege to devote much of my mental faculties to my own development as a musician, rather than say, the toilet scrubbing I may have had to do to keep myself alive had I been born to different circumstances). Basically, no lawyers, no Titus. Admittedly, much of my father’s work involved moving money around from one massive corporation to another, but he is a truly righteous man, and has since left the law to work as Principal of the economically depressed catholic high school from whence he graduated way back in 1966. I might not think all that much of money changing for my personal tastes, and it is near certain that I will never pursue a career in any field of law, but I kiss my father’s feet for the way he busted his ass to make a better life for me. He grew up poor, but he grew up in an America where a man like him, born into poverty, but hard-working, smart, determined, could rise up as high as he wanted, and build a better life for his children. He fought and clawed his way out of Roselle Park, NJ, to the ivy-covered walls of Princeton, to Columbia,
through decades of unending exertion, grunted and sweated through the ranks of school administrators, through another degree (this time law, at Rutgers), up through the ranks of two law firms, all the way to senior partner, and all the way to a life where his son could be given every advantage his own father never could have given him. This was the America my father made himself in. This was the promise that brought my Irish ancestors to America, and this is a promise that I WILL make to my own children, because I REFUSE to let it die, or should I say, to stand idly by and watch it as it is murdered.

“Are you pumped to be playing with Ted Leo/Pharmacists? What about So So Glos?”

FUCK yeah.

ALL RIGHT, WELL, THAT’S IT
SEE YOU TOMORROW
DESTROY POWER
NOT PEOPLE

Yr brother,
Patrick

NEW YEARS EVE SHOWS AT BELL HOUSE & MAXWELL’S!!

tedleo — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 21:09:35 +0000

Well, I guess, technically, one’s a “New Year’s Eve Eve” show. Is that a day of observation of some sort? The Solemnity of Getting Kicked out of the Manger After a Week and Mary’s Subsequent Postpartum Depression? I’m pretty sure that’s what it is. So if you’re not at the 14.5 hour vigil common in most Tridentine Catholic churches for that day, come down to the Bell House!
And regardless of all that, come down to Maxwell’s on the actual New Year’s Eve, too!
I have no idea, as yet. what’s going to happen at these shows, since we just booked them and I am on tour, but if the worst that happens is that you get some free champagne (which I think is definitely going to be part of the ticket price), and we get to play for you, then it’s still worth it!
But I can assure you that we’ll come up with something special to take your mind off of how depressing this holiday actually is.
Yeah!
Check the tour dates .