A little friendship

We are between tours for just a few more days and have been each having our respective good times. I was spending some time in Boston with Make Do and Mend and the Topshelf/Run For Cover records gentlemen and other friends having a blast, but I flew home last night because…

Tonight at Pyramid Scheme (a relatively new venue in Grand Rapids which I haven’t been to yet) our boyfriends Touche Amore are playing! with our as-of-next-week-tour-mates Balance and Composure, soon-to-be-buds White Wives, and local staples Brothers. Its an early show because Pyramid Scheme are being awesome and letting it be all-ages, so get there on time.
Here is a facebook event page for it where you can get more details.

And lastly, speaking of boyfriends, my best friend Lazur, who many of you have probably met as our merch guy, or more recently Touche Amore’s merch guy on the Title Fight tour, won’t be there tonight. Instead, he is swimming in bail and court related debt in Ohio and kind of in a hard place right now (not ohio, the money thing). In an effort to help him offset some of his costs, I did a collaboration with the David Summers Photo, and we’re getting some shirts made up with his handsome face on it. All the money goes to getting lazur out of debt and back home or on tour with us, whichever happens first.

If you would like to help, there is a tshirt and a tanktop available for pre-order at freelazur.bigcartel.com. If you want to help spread the word, use the tag #freelazur on twitter! You might have already seen it floating around and scratched your head, but now you know.

Lastly, tour starts in less than a week in eastern Canada with MDAM and Balance, and I’m very excited to see those bands perform each night and to play dice with them.
And I think the mixing process of our new record is finished.
-Vass

Fall Tour is almost here, get ready…

We are but friends and family,
We are the last of our kind,
So hold my hand, I’ll lift your head up, and
I promise we’ll be fine.

We are but hopeful lovers,
And we are running out of time.
There’s so much stacking up against us,
And we’re falling far behind.

We are but hopeful lovers,
We are the last of our kind,
But if we let our hearts move outward,
I know we will never—

We are but lovers.
We are the last of our kind.
And if we let our hearts move outward,
I know we will never—

We are but lovers,
We are the last of our kind.
And if we let our hearts move outward,
We will never die.

R.I.P.T.F.O.T.

Our buddies in The Fall of Troy played in Grand Rapids tonight, and we had the wonderful opportunity to hang out with them for awhile before and after the show. Good times were had by all. They played an abridged La Dispute cover (Such Small Hands for those of you asking) and Jordan helped out with some vocals on the last song. This is their farewell tour, and we’re bummed to see them go.

No matter what your feelings are towards TFOT as a band, they are a great group of guys, and amazing friends. We’re very fortunate to have met all of them.

So Andrew, Thomas, and Frank:

Rest in peace fellas, we love you. Amazing show tonight. We had a blast.

prep work

see you folks march 5th. should be a doozy.

(bonus points if you know the song)

there are a lot better things to do with your money than buy a t-shirt

seriously, there are. think about that first. here’s a few places that could use your money for something really wonderful.

worldvision.org (my sponsor child’s name is Jael, he turns 3 years old on February 8th)
redcross.org (doing great things for disaster relief all around the world, read for yourself!)
feedingamerica.org (help end hunger in your community, it’s a bigger problem than most wish to believe.)
wellhousegr.org (yup, we’re gonna push this forever, they’ll do great things with your support.)
graceoffice.org (help house the homeless in grand rapids.)
oxfam.org (organizations working together to end poverty.)
pih.org (partners in health is doing so much for haiti right now.)
unicef.org (helping underprivileged children all around the world.)

please click the provided links and explore what these incredible organizations are doing for our world. these are just a few that jordan and I came up with, but please, suggest some more! we’d love to hear what you’re involved in or excited about.

I also encourage you to look around in your own community for ways to offer assistance. there are often times smaller organizations in one’s own backyard that could use your time and money in a very positive way.

if you still feel like a new t-shirt or hoodie, you can check out our brand new store at hellfishfamily.com (scroll down to the “L’s”)
vass has been busting his ass lately working on designs and ideas (thanks for your hard work buddy) please give them a look.

cd’s and LP’s are still available at nosleepstore.com

and all our out of print albums and oddities (along with the recently released here, hear III) can be downloaded for donation at ladispute.bandcamp.com

more announcements and updates in the days to come.

thanks everyone, we’re all in this together.

-bradley