THE (INTERNATIONAL) NOISE CONSPIRACY- FALL 2005

OCT 2nd, St Louis, MO @ POPS

Sitting here just killing time before the show starts.

I arrived here last night after what I thought would have been a long trip ended up being a pretty quick trip. I was originally supposed to fly from rva to Miami, have a 3 hour layover, and then onto st. louis. It didn’t make sense at all and the ticket person seemed to agree when I had asked to have an aisle seat. The dude said “that’s crazy. Ill get ya there faster”. So after a few clicks on his computer he was able to get me on a flight to Chicago with a 1 hour layover and then onto st. louis. Its always nice to have shorter flights then longer. My opinion due to my lack of fondness towards the airplanes of course.
The flights weren’t that bad and flying into Chicago you fly over one of the great lakes. Ive seen them before but to fly over them is pretty cool. From the air you couldn’t even see the other side so the thing must be HUGE!!
So Im here!!!! Arrived at the hotel, met up the dudes, and took a shuttle to denny’s. Its so nice seeing everyone and im looking forward to this tour.

Today we woke up, got situated in my new home for the next 11 days and came here to the venue. That’s pretty much it. Looking forward to the dudes kicking some ass tonight and hopefully/ most likely blowing the bravery off the stage.
The bravery is who we are on tour with for the east coast leg. They completely fucking blow. Bubblegum rock times 20. its so unfortunate how the shitty bands are always the big bands with huge crowds and the good/ legitimate bands never do well at all. BOOO!!
A perfect example of the state of music these days. Oopps. Can you even call it music??
Looking forward to the west coast due to #1 it being the almighty west coast and #2 us playing with the almighty TURBONEGRO. Yeah!

Ill end this little transmission by saying ITS SO NICE TO BE AROUND THE PUNX. Ha ha ha.

Oct 3, Kansas City, MO

Just waiting for things to get started here. We haven’t loaded in yet and the hotel doesn’t have our rooms ready so I am just killing time here on this computer catching up on my social life and some work.
So I am probably going to repeat myself quite a bit in these entries.
The (I) NC completely blew the headliner –Bravery- off the stage last night and probably will continue. The kids were stoked on them last night and I had tons of people coming up to me talking about the band etc etc. While I was with HHH I didn’t have to many interactions about the band with the fans whether it was a lack of interest/ conversation on my part. Im not sure. Last night though I talked to all sorts of people about the band and books and shit. It ruled hard and im glad I made the decision I did with coming back out with these dudes. For the most part the HHH crowd was younger kids who were kinda the radio crowd but last night there were tons of INC fans who were there because of their love for the Swedes. Ha ha ha.
Yesterday I listened to the new RANDY which ruled. Another great band from the northern part Sweden. Very very good pop punk at its finest.

Tonights show is done and has been for the last 2 hours or so. I have been laying in my bunk for about 30 mins and couldn’t sleep so I thought I would write some thoughts. Just thinking about how nice it is to be out here. Tonight as well as last night I felt like towards the end of the night I was loosing my voice. I aqm just talking to so many people my voice I don’t think is used to it. Ha ha ha. I take it as a good thing. I am making up for lost time I guess. Who knows?
Well its now official. Its about 1 in the morning here on the 4th of Oct which means that Armed Love is now officially out. Good for them. Its about time. 1 1/2 years in the waiting and finally their album comes out. Tomorrow morning or actually later this morning we will hopefully have a good couple of boxes of albums waiting for us. We will keep our fingers crossed cause at this point you never know. As far as we know they have been shipped.
So the only thing the bravery really has going for them is their light show. That’s really it. Not that its super incredible but it does out do the band in general.
We head to Chicago here in about 40 mins which will be nice. Good eats and hopefully our friend AK pete will show up. Pete was with the (i)nc last summer on the warped tour while I was with anti-flag. Hopefully he comes out.

Oct 4th. Chicago. Il @ vic theatre

HOCKEY starts tomorrow!!!

Oct 6th, Milwaukee, WI @ the rave

Its about time. The weather has taken a slight turn towards the cold end. The unfortunate thing it’s a little cold for the clothes I brought. I did bring some warm clothes- long sleeves/ jacket- but nothing to warm. Boooo! The good thing is tomorrow we will be at the mall of america which I will then try to buy a sweater or another long sleeve.

Last nights show was in Detroit at the majestic theatre. The place was huge and probably could accommodate about 1200 people but again on this tour very low attendance. This tour turns out to be the bravery’s first US tour.I find that a little weird seeing how they are all over the radio and tv. I guess most of their other shows have been festivals and probably radio shows. So I don’t think their first US run is doing to well. Most shows have been average around 300 people except for Chicago which the venue said was around 1340 but when I looked out into the crowd I would be surprised if there was more then 700 people. ????
The bad thing is that we thought there would be a lot more people at these shows which sucks I guess for us but the good thing is maybe this means that people aren’t really into this bubble gum rock.
Burrrr!!!! I was just outside blocking traffic for our bus to move spots and its so cold out. Its not below zero but getting close ot it. Today my toque will be getting pulled out. YEAH!!
The weather arrived just on time for the hockey season. Last nigh was a pretty chilly evening and every team played which ruled but unfortunately non of us got to watch the games due to the show.

So I am going to receive some shit for this one. Again these are just some current thoughts of mine. So I just heard last weekend in RVA there were a couple parties which were then followed by a party called a “boxing party”. I had heard of one of these before in RVA and didn’t go for obvious reasons. Well maybe its not so obvious. This is the first city/ town I have ever lived in where I have heard of such things. I had heard of them in the past through the media-news. RVA is a pretty amazing city where I have been and seen a lot of exciting, fun, and interesting events which I have never came across in other cities. I think this is one reason for the great love of RVA by many. Scavenger hunts, first friday, best friends day, a lot of bike related events etc etc.
But a boxing party?
Interesting.
I just talked to a friend this morning who had told me about the whole thing. They then also mentioned how when a lady fest is thrown in RVA only about a 100 people showed up and then a couple weekends ago when the Arabic film fest was thrown about 50 people were at each film I watched.
You throw a boxing party and your guaranteed a packed house. So packed you can hardly move from what I hear. Surprising? Not really. Again I was not there so I may not be qualified to speak on the subject but its not going to stop me. HA!
I go to hockey games which is a pretty violent sport. Hockey is not naturally a violent sport but I feel has become a lot more violent due to the current culture we have. Yes there is checking involved in hockey and has been part of the game since the beginning but the fighting thing has just become a huge thing in the last 10-15 years or so. A big part of it is the media of course which ultimately kinda shapes the culture.
Curiosity is an interesting thing of course. Yes if I was in town during this party you would probably see me there however my reason for going would be just to be around a social environment but I would probably watch the “fights” as well. I know I know a little hypocritical. It’s the same as hockey I guess. When there is a fight I do watch. I was brought up in this culture of violence as well. So I guess my whole point gets washed down the drain on this one. Oopps!! I still think its pretty cheesy and a little sad.
Another thing I heard about this party was that while 2 grrls were fighting or choosing to fight some dude yelled “show us your tits”
Again I wasn’t there and didn’t personally hear this but violence and sexism run hand in hand (the sexual politics of meat) so it doesn’t surprise me that this was said.
Okay ill stop here. Just trying to get out some thoughts and this is the way I am choosing to get them out at the moment.
One last thing! Lars came into the back lounge and I had asked him “hey in Sweden do people throw or have you ever heard of a boxing party”. Lars replied “ a boxing party? Whats that?” That sums it up.

Oct 8h. Twin Cities, MN

So this is going to sound like I am bragging but im not. I am so so so fortunate to get to be on tour with these dudes. I get to see one of the best live bands there is every single night (my opinion of course).
Before they play I usually just chill out and relax but as soon as I hear their intro come over on the PA I stand up and get ready for the next 40 mins of dancing. I LOVE IT!! I don’t think I have ever been into a band that I have toured as much as I am into these ddues.
I was telling some of the dudes about derrick the drummer of alkaline trio and how amazing he is to watch. Last month while I was out with HHH we played a show with A3 and the whole time my eyes were glued to derrick. Well during this time I had kind of forgotten about Ludwig since I hadn’t seen INC in awhile. Ludwig is a complete genius. The other night in Chicago I didn’t have to sell so I was on stage helping scooter, and Robert out on stage and there was one point when I was behind Lars amp holding his chord so he didn’t pull his amp over. At that time I had my eyes glued to Ludwig during a certain part of armed love where he hits the rims of his drums and I was blown away by his style, and rhythm. He has a very jazz style to him and doesn’t necessarily go super crazy but is very controlled/ gentle which in turn makes him able to pull a lot of amazing things off.
Watching the dudes sound check is also pretty amazing as well. Most bands during sound check usually check one of their songs and that’s it. INC usually just kinda jams out with random jams that they seem to improvise on the spot which are catchy as fuck.

One bad thing that has happened recently with the dudes is they still continue to get fucked. Armed Love is finally out after 1 1/2 years but upon listening to the warner release the other day they found out it was totally censored. YEAH! Supposedly it was a mistake which seems a little weird but possible. Their single “a small demand” has the word “shit” in it which is censored. Then the track listings is completely different then the Europe version which means where its listed that certain musicians played on certain songs on the warner version its wrong. BOOOO!
For being on one of the worlds biggest record labels its unfortunate that they are still getting the shit end of the stick. Again my opinion. Whats also a bummer is at this point they don’t get as bummed because they are totally used to it. How unfortunate.
Lets hope all of this pays off for them.

Last night we hung out with the bravery dudes which was a little interesting. My opinion is they don’t really have much to offer at all. They are nice but obviously when you are on tour with someone most of the time everyone is nice to each other. Other then that there is really nothing there. Don last night got very frustrated due to a conversation he had with the lead singer from that band. I wasn’t there but from what I hear the dude just is not smart at all and has certain opinions of the world but those opinions come from someone who’s parents are billionaires and was raised most likely in a pretty posh setting. I woke up around 4 in the morning to Don just going crazy because of his frustrations. I talked to the same dude the other night in a bar and thought that the dude was a little weird. But then again I am sure there are some who think the same about myself. Oh well.

Today we have the day off at the mall of america which we all just came back from. Walked around for a little bit and now are currently in the process of getting on a train to head into the city of Minneapolis for some pizza luce. Yeah! ill order myself some vegan cheese bread, pasta and a little dessert.

Oct 8th, driving to Northfield, MN

Sitting here in the bus on our way to the next show. Yesterday was a good day off. Managed to pick up a couple shirts and eat some amazing pasta/ pizza last night. Its pretty cold in these parts which means summer is officially done and winter is on the way. NICE!!
While we were eating last night the dudes saw that some psychedelic band from Sweden was playing in town. Everyone was trying to get me to go because they thought I would have fun but I was pretty worried that I was getting sick and due to the temperature I didn’t want to chance it so I headed back with scooter. I made the right choice because waking up this morning I was completely refreshed from an amazing sleep and I felt good. Went back to the mall for an hour and came back to sit on the bus where I am now.
I am looking forward to the show tonight to see the dudes do their thing. Always a good good time.

So we are here at the place where we are playing tonight.
Tonights show is at some university which I think is most likely a private religious school. Everyone here so far looks the same. All white.
Why are we playing here is what everyone is asking?
Its not our show so we kinda have to go with the flow on this bravery thing. The other unfortunate thing is that at university shows the main band usually gets paid shit loads of money. It would be safe to say that the bravery will make around $10 000 tonight. What sucks is INC is not going to see any of it. We will still get paid the same which is kind of bullshit.
Our dressing rooms are in the womens volleyball locker room and there are signs every where about winning etc etc.
Theres a sign that hangs over the shower which reads “I am aggressive and I expect to win” Don read this and then asked in his sweet, innocent Swedish accent “is that how they teach in the united states” ha ha. it was quite funny how he said and then he continued on saying “that’s not how they teach in Sweden. They teach you everyone is the same”. Pretty funny. Again Don is someone you have to know and hang around to know exactly why I would think this was such a funny comment. About 30 mins before this don walked to a little pond here on this campus to hopefully do some fishing but came back saying “it looked like it was water for birds”. Again pretty classic.
Fuck god!!

Oct 9th, 1:45 am Northfield, MN

So I got the new PROPAGANDHI today from some kid at tonights show who drove 8 hours from Winnipeg, canaduh to see the INC. You don’t know how big of a smile this brings to my face. After the show was over Robert and I came into the back lounge and listened to it as loud as possible. INCREDIBLE. Heavy heavy shit. There is so much metal influence in this album. YEAH.
If your 15 years old and you play this album loud at home there is a good chance you will get kicked outta the house.
If your driving your car blaring this album super LOUD you may just may crash your car into a cop car.
Its so so SO heavy and extremely technical. THE LOUDER THE BETTER. This shit comes out in 12 days. You’ve been warned.
Ha ha ha
So we all just came back from some total weird college party here in northfield. I have never really been to a party as such but have always heard about your typical frat party house. This house wasn’t necessarily a frat house but might as well been. You could hardly move at all with all the people just packed inside. There must have been about 200 people in all at this house. It was weird watching it all go down and thinking that this is peoples reality.A very very sad state of affairs.
I took a couple shots with Robert, Ludde, Lars. After staying at this place for about an hour or so we all decided to head back. We all got our taste of college life which will be good for the next couple years.
On the walk back I was walking with Scooter and Dennis just talking. Most of the conversation focused on the band we are on tour with currently. Yes the bravery.
Most of the conversation was in regards to the lack of professionalism, lack of knowledge, and just plan lack of substance.
When you are a headling band you are supposed to take care of the others and make sure they are having fun. (our opinion of course)
The first show you go out of your way to introduce yourself to the other acts and say “its nice to have you out” etc etc. Unless you could really give a shit or you are just a fucked up person in general. On this tour there is really nothing fun about it.
The people aren’t super fucked up people but just totally lack the knowledge of “ this is how things are done”
I guess what can you expect from a band who has only been together for about 2 years and are now all over the radio/ tv.
Most of us out here have been touring, involved in this scene for years etc etc and I would say safely have a good idea about how things work.
The bravery does not. A complete joke.
I do want to say that they aren’t complete jerks or assholes and for the most part are okay dudes but are just completely ignorant about a lot of things. When your brought up in a millionaire lifestyle I guess your brain gets a little tweaked. That’s all.
The best thing for me though out of all of it is the people who come talk to me every single night and express how they were “blown away”. It rules. I then reply to them with a big grin and then throw in a little comment about your latest bubble gum rock band.
People are not dumb and can tell the good from the bad. For the most part. Those are the people who I guess you should be concerned with. The others who are got up in all the crap I guess through time will hopefully figure it out and if not then that’s life.
We have 6 days with these dudes left and we are all looking forward to the west coast where we will actually be on tour with a very legitimate band. TURBONEGRO!!!
GO BUY THE NEW PROPAGANDHI. Both singers went to see vocal trainers and it has paid off.

Oct 9th, Decorah, IO @ luther college.

Sitting here in a athletic building at another university show. Everyone here as well as last night look the same. No diversity at all. Just your normal looking surburban white kids. And even the age is lacking in diversity. Everyone seems like they just got out of high school and some even seem younger then that. The show just started and there are only about 200 kids in a gym that could probably hold around 2000 people. Not a good show enviroment at all.
We didn’t do much today. Woke up and went inside our hotel to do some yoga and then back on the bus to head to the gym. Ha ha ha. Once here there was really nowhere to go so I just chilled on the bus for most of the day and listened to the new propagandhi record. There was a river about a mile from here so Don was super excited to go there and do some fishing. I love this dude. Such a genuine human being with the most amazing heart. A true sweetheart. I didn’t see him before the show started so I am wondering how he did in his adventures. Classic.
Tomorrow we have the day before we head into the motherland. CANADA!!! So excited. I always get excited to go back home. Toronto and Montreal are both amazing places and have a lot to offer. It would have been nice to be closer to TO on our day off because I would have then tried to go to the hockey hall of fame but we are to far away. Some day I will see lord Stanley again.

Oct 10th Lansing, MI @ quality inn

Sitting here in room 238 at the quality inn. Havent done much today at all. Walked about 40 mins to some mall which wasn’t much of a mall. Well if you have money you would enjoy it but do to my poor ass there was really nothing there. Lars, Ludde, Robert and myself walked there. Some of us needed daily essentials so we hit up the wal-mart across the street and then went over to the mall to get a coffee and then went to some bookstore where I checked out some magazines.
INC hasn’t been getting that much press which is good and bad I guess.
We did check out the latest AP which is a pretty shitty magazine now that I think about it. It had an interview in it with the dudes which is cool but then the dude who did the interview then also reviews the ARMED LOVE album and totally tears it apart which I think is pretty unfortunate.
I mean if that’s they way the reviewer feels then that’s how it is. But I also think there are so many people out there who like to put INC and REFUSED (dennis’s old band) on the same platform.
Refused are fucking dead. Get over it. INC is completely different then refused and I feel are actually better then refused. When it comes to music there is a lot of closed mindedness that comes with it. People are set in their ways and even I am myself but get over the past. Yes there are amazing bands that have paved the way for others but some of these bands aren’t around anymore and will never be around. Its cool to like them- yes- and music may not be much withut them but they aren’t around anymore. How are you going to like live music if you don’t like the bands that are around currently.
Every night I have people coming up to me talking about refused etc etc. get over it!!! Ha ha ha. They were great. Very innovative. But they are no more. And again I just feel that INC is a completely different band and are actually able to contribute more to music in general.

Oct 13, Botson, MA

Sitting in front of the Avalon which is across the street from fenway park here in boston. The home of the red sox for all you baseball fans but better yet the home to the boston bruins for all you HOCKEY fans. Yeehaaw!! Andy Moogs old team. Andy Moog was the goaltender for the Edmonton oilers back in my days of living in Alberta when the oilers were winning the cup everyday and I myself was a hockey player. The good old days.

So the last couple days have been a lot of fun. We were in Canada where we played a night in Toronto and Montreal. Both places are amazing cities and being in Canada in general is a blast. For those of you who know me you understand how much I enjoy this little country to the north of the US.

Both shows in Canada for the Swedes were seriously off the wall. So many kids came out to see them and traveled from far distances. INC does steal the show every night but when most of the crowd comes to see them it adds that much more to the craziness. In Toronto for the day we just hung out at the venue for the most part and then Scooter, Dennis and I went out to get the most amazing thai food in downtown TO. Yum. Seeing how the last couple shows were in the mid-west where the food was lacking quality it was a treat. The show was so much fun. I was completely swamped as soon as the doors opened until the minute they closed.
+ha ha. as I sit here writing this I just had a couple kids come up and ask why are we on tour with the bravery- classic. My answer was “we ask ourselves this everyday”
Crossing into Canada wasn’t that bad at all. We just sat in the bus for about 30 mins and they let us go. Maybe its because most had Swedish passports and myself having a free ticket into Canada. Ha.
Our show last night in Montreal was actually better then the TO show. Well…… the show wasn’t as good for the INC but the response was so good. For some reason they had major technical difficutlties which took some time out of their stage time and I think ultimately effected the anticipation of the show. The PA/ patching was completey wrong and took forever to fix. It got to the point where INC was said “fuck it” and came on stage and dealt with what they had. Seeing dennis justs rip the mic of lars stand due to his not working was incredible. So much energy and angst. Yet again we get fucked by these new york millionaire brats. If there was a soundcheck for us this would not have happened at all. Complete lack of professionalism from these bubble gum rockers. The good thing though is it didn’t ruin the response and possibly in turned people could tell “whoa. These dudes are pissed” and the show went crazy.
I actually got into a huge argument with the actual owner of the venue last night. He totally had his finger touching my nose telling me to “fuck off” and “get out of here”. A bum deal. I will say I was not at fault. Ha ha ha.
You see the thing is that when you play most venues out there they take a percentage of your merch sales. Its very unfortunate. Its just another way for someone to make a couple extra dollars. Well last night someone comes up to me and says while the show was going on “oh by the way it is the policy of the owner that they can take anything they want from you and then subtract that from the percentage”
Bullshit. First you don’t approach me during the show and say “by the way” and you can wait to do this and tell me this after the show and we can figure something out. And I would rather pay them money then give them our merch. So the dude was a little ticked off. I felt bad but then again sometimes you win some and sometimes you loose some. Oh well.

Oct 14th, flying somewhere over the US to LA

I don’t like flying at all. Earlier in the flight right after take off from Boston it was so so bumpy. Not fun at all. We have a 5 1/2 hour flight to LA and I am on about 2 hours of sleep due to such an early departure.

The other night while coming back into the states we were all in the lounge watching the MUPPETS dvd. We were talking about how we were all into this show when we were children but now seeing it as older kids the show is absolutely amazing. I think the last time I saw the muppets was when I very young. Its such an incredible show that I think I may even purchase the dvd. To bad there aren’t shows like it anymore. A very very funny watch.

So tonight we are playing with TURBONEGRO. Yeehaaw!!! I CANNOT WAIT. These 4 shows were the shows we were all looking forward to on this tour and they are finally here. We get to get away from the bubblegum bullshit and see some real rock. I have never seen the NEGRO but from what all the dudes have been saying it sounds like it’s going to rule hard. I think most of the shows are sold out which is always a good time and just in general with the INC and the NEGRO the show is going to be off the hook. Julliete Lewis and the Licks are opening all the shows. Not really and fan of them. Just another rock band and the only thing they really have going for them is julliete lewis. She cannot sing that well but has this sort of iggy popish sort of style which makes up for the lack of everything else. Its going to be fun as well because we will be in a van for these 5 days which will be fun. A lot more freedom. On a bus once you arrive the thing just sits there until you leave so if you need or want to go anywhere its very very hard to. Its going to be a nice little change. And what better place to be in a van then southern cali. The drives are short and the scenery beautiful.