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.

Touche Amore/La Dispute “Searching for a Pulse/The Worth of the World” Split 7″

Hello everyone,

I’m currently sitting in the back room at the Triple Rock in Minneapolis listening to our buds in Therefore I Am kill it. Chad and Vass are enjoying some vegan BBQ next door. Jordan is once again sick, so Colin is escorting him to the med center. Hoping that kid gets well soon. And Kev? He’s wearing some bad ass high tops right now. I know, right? weird.

Anyhow, to the point. We’re very pleased to announce a new release, that most of you have heard about. Here’s a few things you may not know about it:

No Sleep Records is proud to announce the upcoming split “Searching For A Pulse/The Worth Of The World” from Los Angeles’ Touché Amoré and Grand Rapids’ La Dispute.

Searching For A Pulse/The Worth Of The World is the
musical and emotional convergence of two groups of
close friends who, while from entirely different locations
and backgrounds, share a common passion for
creating honest art that seeks to explore the deeper
aspects of everyday existence. In particular, the songs
on either side of this record discuss thematically the
sometimes crippling mediocrity of day-to-day life,
paying special attention to the effect environment
has on self while attempting to reconcile feelings of
discontent in the face of self-doubt.

Musically, the 7” represents a new approach for both
bands. In an attempt to add aesthetic continuity to the
lyrical concept, they focused on finding musical middle
ground with the other — a process that forced
both bands into new creative territories and added
a consistency uncharacteristic of most splits. The end
result is a four song collaborative examination of life,
two musical snapshots from two very different cities
that each show the same lingering uncertainty present
everywhere, and a challenge to the creative process.

Recorded during similar time periods both in Los
Angeles and in New York and featuring collaborative
digital and hand-drawn artwork from LA DISPUTE’s
Adam Vass and TOUCHE AMORE’s Nick Steinhardt,
as well as vocal collaborations between each band’s
vocalists, Searching For A Pulse/The Worth Of The
World arrives via No Sleep Records this July.

Included inside is a digital download card of all four songs.
The new 7″ features 2 songs from each band, and will only be available via vinyl format (w/ download cards) at release, with a digital release to come later down the road.

Pre-orders are now up at NoSleepStore.com with a limited edition PRE-ORDER t-shirt design also available. All pre-orders include a digital download valid on July 27th.

SFAP/TWOTW will be available July 27th, 2010. This split 7″ will NOT be available on iTunes on street date. Buy Vinyl!

Click the big ‘ol banner below to order!

I’d just like express how much we appreciate the continued support you folks have given us. It really means everything to us, much more than I or anyone else in this band can express. So again, thank you.

In other news,

Many of you have been saying things like, “I would totally go see you guys in New York on the 21st, but the show’s sold out man!” or, “I’m bummed the show at Bowery Ballroom sold out, not fair!” (note: nobody said any of that)

good news! Trash Talk and ourselves have added a second show. And what’s more? It’s free. check it out:

This show is brought to you by BV, 1000 Knives and Trash Talk Collective. This show is 100% FREE and ALL AGES. Get there on time. Space is very limited. Spread the word!

More info here.

More soon, thanks everyone.

-Bradley

thank you.

thank you.
thank you.
and again, thank you.

like jordan mentioned before, the two weeks prior to 2010 were spent working on here, hear III and setting up a proper system to donate its proceeds to wellhouse grand rapids. we left for tour shortly after and weren’t quite sure what to expect.

we’re very happy to report that with your generous donations $1,915.44 was collected for wellhouse.

please take a moment to check out wellhousegr.org and see where your money is going. they’re doing amazing things.

the folks at wellhouse and ourselves appreciate these donations more than we are capable of putting into words. it’s incredibly  humbling to see a community of people come together in a time when money is so tight, and still manage to give. so thank you. so much.

now:

I feel as though another thank you is in order to our friends in grand rapids.
it’s been a long time hasn’t it? yup, it has. too long. thank you for your patience and understanding while we sorted out a space to play. so now, at last, here we go:

March 5th, 2010 at The Ladies Literary Club in Grand Rapids, MI.
61 Sheldon Boulevard Southeast
Grand Rapids, MI 49503

tickets are available through the calvin box office.
we’re going to get a lot of people involved and make this thing very special for you all. you deserve it. lots more information in the next couple days, stay tuned.

like vass mentioned below, one song is complete for a split we’re doing with our dear friends in touche amore. started on the second tonight. feels so good. hello 2010.

love you all.

and again, thank you so much.

-bradley

Thanksgiving weekend shows

There are a lot of shows coming up this coming week and rest of the month. I realize that there are also several of these shows that are on the same day and even in the same city on the same night. I’m not going to try and push our own shows any more than any other, but am going to list all the shows in our area I could find; this should be a community, and not a competition. I encourage you to check out the bands listed and decide for yourselves, you really can’t go wrong with any of these shows, and going to a show is much better than not going to a show. If anyone has other local shows I missed, please post. Thanks.

11/19/09 – Corner Record Shop (Kalamazoo)
TOUCHE AMORE, LA DISPUTE, ROTTEN WOOD MOON

11/19/09 – Ugly Mugs (South Bend, IN)
The Radiance Effect, Etna Green, Here Comes Hope (Formerly Oh Donahue!), and I Am Band

11/20/09 – The Metal Frat (Ann Arbor)
TOUCHE AMORE, LA DISPUTE, GOOD TEETH/GOLD TEETH

11/20/09 – The Mixtape (Grand Rapids)
LEGEND, SMASH YOUR ENEMIES, MAKE IT CLEAR, ABOVE IT ALL, LOOK LEFT SWING RIGHT

11/20/09 – 336 Henry (Grand Rapids)
WORMBURNER, DASTERD, YOUNG DEVILRY, PHILLIP-PETRICK

11/21/09 – The DAAC (Grand Rapids)
RELIGIOUS SS DISORDER, CORROSIVE KIDS (tape release), more

11/21/09 – 336 Henry (Grand Rapids)
TOUCHE AMORE, ENDS, CULT OF REASON, DIRE-WOLF, DAMAGES

11/21/09 – Mulligan’s Pub (Grand Rapids) 21+
BROTHERS, VICTOR! FIX THE SUN, CAIN MARKO

11/22/09 – Summer Camp (Chicago)
TOUCHE AMORE, LA DISPUTE, INTO IT. OVER IT., TENSION GENERATION

11/24/09 – The DAAC (Grand Rapids) AA
ROTTEN WOOD MOON, SPIT FOR ATHENA, SCABBURGER

11/27/09 – The DAAC (Grand Rapids) AA
WALDEN (Pond), CLOUD MOUTH (Chicago), KALINE (Grand Rapids), LOUNE (E. Lansing)

11/27/09 – Mac’s Bar (Lansing)
ANNUALS, COMPANY OF THIEVES, and GOOD WEATHER FOR AIRSTRIKES

11/28/09 – MICHIGAN FEST @ The Wesley Foundation (Mt Pleasant)
2pm Vegan potluck, 3pm bands, $5-10 sliding scale this will be a benefit
POSITIVE NOISE (record release), EXTRA VOMIT (record release), SIN ORDEN, BUNNY SKULLS, UNDER ANCHER (record release), DEIR WOLF, TIGER, THEY COME IN WAVES, FACE REALITY, EXPIRE, OVERLOAD, GREAT REVERSALS, DAMAGES

11/29/09 – Lake Station Eagle’s (Lake Station, IN)
NATIVE, GROWN UPS, CASTEVET

I hope this isn’t going against what I just said about pushing our own shows over others, but I do want to make a note of our friends Touche Amore from California, who are coming all the way up to the mitten to hang for a few days. They are an amazing band comprised of amazing people, and we are way excited to be playing with them near our home as they hosted us near their home.

-Chad