Apologies, thank yous, and Old 88...

Hey gang,

My deepest apologies for not being back here in a while. Things around town have been crazy to say the least, some good crazy, some not so good, but it's all working itself out...That's the most important thing. A lot of people have been asking about our tour van situation. No, we don't have a replacement yet but hell we still have 4 days before we leave right?? haha

After I last added an entry so many things have happened it's almost hard to begin. I'm never gonna let it go this long again. That much I promise...

Anyway, so since my last blog I've been spending most of my time on tour with my group, The Crash Moderns. Our debut record just came out so it was time for us to hit the road in support of it. Since early Feb I think we've been home like a total of 2 weeks, and that time is usually spent working odd jobs to try and pay a bill or two and squeeze in some pocket change for the next tour. Which, by the way, starts yes, in 4 days...

The tours themselves have been awesome, and the people we've met, for the most part, have been so incredible. Always an asshole here or there but for the most part, there are so many good people willing to give up their homes/floors and food to us. These tours are by no means glamorous, but man, so much fun...

We did have the awesome opportunity to hang out in Nashville for a couple of days with our One Love family and that was too cool. Big thanks to you guys, by the way, Cassie, Jade, Kathy, Caroline and crew for being so hospitible to the poor ass rockers from NJ/NY...

That trip to Nashville marked our very first trip to Sonic. I have the pics to prove it. They're touristy as hell but I may just put one up for fun...next to the pic of my ever growing Pez collection...We'll talk about that another time.

Anyway, seeing the country was out of control. This tour took us just about everywhere you could imagine. Some highlights would have to be playing to a sold out crowd of 2000 down in South Padre Island for Spring Break 2008 to sipping the best damn frozen margaritas in the world with the guys and Mike McDougal of Hot Topic at Gueros during SXSW, to skiing (breaking my ass) in Salt Lake City Utah to gambling my life away with G money in Vegas to finally puking my guts out all over Sunset Strip after a night at The Whiskey a go go in LA...FUN FUN...

Oh, then the craziness really kicked in to high gear. One day while driving thru Arizona, G and I had the bright idea that we weren't really getting the "full" experience of Arizona. You know like the stuff you see in movies, read about in books, all the cool stuff like the desert, cactus, scorpions, rattle snakes. The "real" Arizona. We were on a dreary main highway. The same one it seemed like we were on for days...So boring...

So we convinced the other guys, somehow, that Route 88 would truly give us the sites we were looking for and cut 2 hours off our trip to boot...

About a mile in things looked amazing...We had it all, true AZ scenery. The works...I think we even saw a coyote or maybe it was a stick, I don't know, anyway we were psyched...Mikey even pissed on a cactus...

So as were driving we notice some lights up ahead in the distance. As we proceeded further we came upon a street filled with cop cars. Apparantly Route 88 had collapsed up ahead and we were to be detoured along with a long line of other cars onto "OLD 88". Why was it called OLD 88?? I'll tell you...

Old 88, which we later found out, is a historic landmark of sorts. Old 88 was an old pony express trail and because of this, it was against the law to build guardrails along this particular stretch of road.

The next sign we see is "unpaved road for next 26 miles". Now keep in mind we are in a 1988 Dodge Ram conversion van that looks like something out of the A-team and that at best peeks out at 35 MPH up hill. Mind you, we're also pulling a trailer with well over 1000 pounds of gear.

So now we find ourselves traveling on the side of a cliff. I'm not even kidding a little. The mountain is to our left, and an 800 foot straight drop to our right. The steep uphills were almost impossible and the downhills were pure suicide. As we're making turns at like 5 miles an hour, rocks are literally falling over the edge.

Ok, so if things weren't bad enough to begin with, as we're approaching about the 4 mile mark (22 to go) the brakes go straight to the floor!! If this had happened on a downhill we would have been done in for sure...

I quickly pulled the car over to the cliff and waved the following cars on.

Oh yeah, did I mention that there was only one lane...yet cars were coming in the opposite direction as well....

Ok, so now we're officially stuck. The scene unfolding around us is exactly that of the first and much better "Hills Have Eyes" remake.

The hours go by and by now we are the only vehicle in sight. It's pitch black. We're up against a mountain. A cliff to our right. Not 1 bar of cell phone service on any phone. And we wait.

It's decided that Tommy and I will sit up in the driver and passenger seat and alert any on coming cars to us as they come whipping around the mountain, by turning the lights on for a brief second as to not kill the car battery...

Finally at around 4:30 AM a tow truck that was called by someone who apparntly passed us appeared and lifted our van onto the flat bed and hitched the trailer. At that point, happy to be alive, the rest of us all climbed into the flat bed for the 1 hour journey around the remaining miles of the hill...None of us will ever forget the night on old 88. That I know....

So many great tour stories, here's one last one...

1 day before we were to arrive home from the last leg of the tour, our wonderful tour van (The SS Salty Balls) decided to leave us stranded in St. Louis, Missouri. Already pretty fed up with it at this point (We had just put a brand new starter in it a day earlier) We had a friend come and pick us up on the side of the highway, hitch up our trailer and pull away leaving ol SS in the rear view mirror. I'm not even kidding. I didn't even call it in for like 2 days...

We did manage to make it home finally, by lying to a very nice lady at a U-haul location. She rented us a box truck that seats 3 ( We, of course, were 6) and proceeded to belt buckle in 3 lawn chairs to the inside of the back. We drove straight thru... 20 hours.

But all of this was just a lead up to last weeks hometown record release party in front of a packed crowd at NYC's Bowery Ballroom...Oh man, what a great feeling...Thanks so much...

I'd like to send a very special thank out to everyone who have touched our lives this past year. It's meant everything to us. I know that the rest of this year is gonna be a lot of hard work but it's been so worth it. Thanks...

Our plan for The Crash Moderns is to continue touring for remainder of 2008. First the US then hopefully the UK and parts of Europe and Asia, but we'll have to see. Next up on our plate is this next tour which starts on Saturday. I love the east coast, and I really love the beach so I can't wait to get back down to SC and FL...

Anyway, I'll post another blog from the road, before I get home and forget all the really good stuff...

See you guys soon...Hope you're all having a kick ass Spring...

xoxo-Danny