We are also quite pleased to be a part of a momentous occasion, the release of Rat Jackson’s CD. We’ve been waiting for it for a while and it can’t come too soon. Join us at the Broad Street Cafe in Durham, NC on August 7th for their CD release party.

Rad Fest started as a small idea: to bring some of my favorite bands and people to the modest port town of Wilmington, North Carolina. This city plays host to a quiet creativity and I have every intention to shake it up! Inspired by the amazing times I’ve experienced at The Fest in Gainesville Florida, I set out to give music nerds an opportunity to share in a carefree two-days of camaraderie and party-hardery. To have so many bands that embody the reason I love music right here in my own town is an overwhelming imagery. If you can have a passion for something that enhances life so much and be surrounded by it for two-days straight, that is the ideal recipe for an amazing experience. Add to that the amazing friends old and new that you get to share it with and I can’t imagine a greater thing. This isn’t a brand new idea, but I’m thrilled to bring that idea here, to my friends and to my town. We’re going to have a great fucking time!

Over the two days of the festival, 5 venues will play host to close to 100 bands. With prices at $25 for a 2-day pass.

For the entire lineup of bands click read more. For more information on Rad Fest and ticket information, click here.

10-4 Eleanor
After The Fall
American Armada
American War
The Anchor
Anchor Arms
Ann Beretta
Annabel
Assassinate the Scientist
Averkiou
Barnaby Jones
Battle!
Blacklist Royals
Black Wine
Captain, We’re Sinking!
Cloak/Dagger
Coffee Project
Colossus
Constrictor
Criminal Culture
Dead to Me
Dirty Tactics
The Dopamines
Dude Jams
The Emotron
Fin Fang Foom
Fossil Arm
Freeman
The Future Now
GDP
Gatorface
Grabass Charlestons
Greenland is Melting
Homemade Handgrenade
How Dare You
imadethismistake
Jon Gaunt
Junior Battles
Landmines
Leatherface
Lemuria
Liquid Limbs
Madison Bloodbath
The Measure (SA)
The Menzingers
Mockingbird Wish Me Luck
Mose Giganticus
Mourning Is For Suckers
Mouthbreather
Museum Mouth
New Bruises
New Mexican Disaster Squad
Night Birds
Ninja Gun
NoMore
None More Black
Nothing In The Dark
Nothington
O Pioneers!!!
One Win Choice
Over Stars and Gutters
P.S. Eliot
PJ Bond
Panthro UK United 13
Photoclub
Polygon
Red City Radio
Red Clay River
Red Collar
Reverse the Curse
The Riot Before
Rob Huddleston and Foundation
RVIVR
The Sainte Catherines
Sakes Alive!!
Senders
Sharks Come Cruisin
Sleepies
The Snips
Something Fierce
Spanish Gamble
The Takers
Tin Armor
Todd Congelliere
Too Many Daves
Two Hand Fools
Underground Railroad to Candyland
Vegan Coke
Very Magic
Virgins
We Are The Union
Worn In Red
Young Livers

Please let us know if you have any questions-email us at info@redcollarmusic.com.

We hope you like them as much as we do.

Order here: http://redcollarmusic.bigcartel.com/product/one-of-kind-red-collar-t

First of all - at long last, the pre-order for the limited vinyl release of Pilgrim is open now!  Visit our merch store or click on the cover art to pick one up - We have only pressed 500 copies.  All of them will be hand numbered and on nice, red vinyl.  All of the sleeves were screen-printed.  The track order was re-worked to give the album more of a Side A/Side B flow and the first 100 copies will be printed with special metallic silver ink, with assorted colors throughout the remaining quantity.  Don’t worry, all the colors look pretty sharp.  Due to the length of the album we could only fit 9 of the original songs on one record so every copy will also have a download card with every  LP that will have all 11 songs plus a cover of Jawbreaker’s “Jinx Removing” that will only be available with this release.  Thanks to Scotty, Neil, Josh and all of the gentlemen at Loose Charm for helping to make this happen.

For our local friends, we’ll also be taking pre-orders at our Troika Fest show, this Saturday at the Trotter Building (11:30pm set time).

Next - For the first time since its release this past March, Pilgrim is available IN STORES.   We’ve made a partnership with Suburban Home Records for physical  distribution and CDs should be popping up on shelves before you know it.  We cannot thank Virgil and his crew enough for the help and support they’ve shown over the last few months and their dedication in helping band’s who are putting out records on their own figure out how to get their music into indie retail stores around the country.

Finally, we’ve posted a video for “Hands Up”.   It’s a mash-up of video footage taken by Chris Carter at Tir Na Nog in Raleigh, NC on July 4th, paired with a live audio recording from a show in New York City at Pianos on July 14th.   Take a dramamine, strap on your sea legs and enjoy.

It was a tough few days in the Big Apple. Or, as Mike might say, “It’s no joke”.

I seriously dislocated and fractured my elbow before we even played. However, we still managed to pull off both of our scheduled shows and I had an appointment with a surgeon and a titanium bolt the day after we got back.

We gritted our teeth and got through it and we’re still getting through it, and we will continue getting through it. I do want to re-confirm that RED COLLAR WILL BE PLAYING the Troika Music Festival this Saturday night at the Trotter Building in downtown Durham with The Travesties, Maple Stave, and The Bronzed Chorus. It’ll be a one-armed show for me, but the one arm that I’ve got is ready to go double-time.

Unfortunately, we did have to postpone our tour dates in December. I apologize, but I still have quite a lot of physical therapy to undergo and we didn’t feel we would be able to give 100% for that length of time.

Finally, and most importantly, I wanted to thank everyone for their support and encouragement over the last week. It means a lot to me and to all of us and I hope to thank everyone in person this weekend at Troika!

Until then!

***We want to thank Steve Oliva for creating the dove design featured on the American Apparel Tanks. Jay’s created the Hanson design.

Fortunately along the way, we’ve met some kind souls who have let us crash at their place. Full disclosure: we’ve had some bad experiences with crashing at people’s places too. One time, I woke up with a rash on the side of my face…the side that was lying on the mattress. Eeeech.

But that is a different story altogether.

In Lexington, I couldn’t believe Nate’s generosity. He gave us a couple of bucks, offered up his place to crash and made us pancakes in the morning. And we didn’t even play. (If you’re new to these blogs, read the previous ‘Most of the Time’ blogs). He’s a great stand-up guy. He has the most bad ass belt buckle. It’s gold and red and boldly says: ELVIS (‘Damn right man, fucking love The King, man’). Nate was not only letting us crash but letting another band crash too. The other band was younger, maybe they were twenty-one? They were in an acoustic-core band. I missed their show cause well…I WAS IN OWNENSBORO…but they were really nice, thoughtful fellas. I gathered they were all from the same hometown in Ohio and as you will see, from rival high schools. I would say that they were not unkempt or rude.

I would also say they were stoned. Very stoned. In Nate’s living room, this is the conversation that I overhead.

“Your high school…sucked”
“Wha..?”

“Your high school. It. Sah…Sah-uh. Sah-uh-uh. Sucked”
“Mine?”

“Your”
“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah”
“Well yours sucked worse”

“Worser”
“Yours sucked worser? Dude, that is not right. That’s how bad your high school sucked. They taught you the word ‘worser’ “

“No, your high school sucked more”
“You mean ‘morer’?”

“Dumb Ass”
“Dumb Ass. Dumber Ass.”

“Dumb Asser”
“You high school was so stupid. We’d always beat you in Math Corps. You guys came in like, last place, like every year (He dramatically rolled his eyes)”

“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah”

“Yeah well you guys always had the worst…(cough)…science…(cough)…projects. Like paper mache volcanoes”
“So?”

“In high school? Dude that’s like…(cough)…an eighth grade project”
“Yeah well your basketball team had like the shortest shorts. You could see nut sack”

“Why were you looking at nut sacks? That’s the most ridiculous thing I ever heard. You’re going to be a famous rock star someday and someone is going to ask you ‘What was your high school experience like?’ and all you’re going to do is say ‘Nut sacks, man. Nut sacks’ ”

“They were hanging out. How could you not see them? I had to turn away every time there was a loose ball”

“BWAH-HA-HA!!!!!!! Yeah well you guys had the worst colors like ever. Like Maroon and green”

“…balls…balls…balls…nuts…balls…”

“It was like watching piles of puke throw a ball to one another”
“You totally just said balls”

“Test-Eh-CLEEZE. We should get those for the band”
“Testicles?”

“No. So stupid, dude. The shorts. I meant the shorts”
“No. Nope. Nope. No way. NO WAY. Band vote? I say no. Tim is passed out so that’s two to one say nay on the short shorts”

“Shit. Sheeeee-it”
“Hey man your high school mascot was like the stupidest thing ever”

“It was pretty stupid”
“Pretty stupid? It was so dumb”

They started laughing.

“So stupid”
“So dumb”

Laughing and laughing.

“Why?”
“I don’t know”

“No reason?”
“I don’t know”

Silence and then some satisfied sighs. I HAD to ask.

ME: “So, can I ask what was the mascot?”

“You may”

Then they started laughing and laughing again. Again, silence and then again some well satisfied sighs.

ME: “What was the mascot?”

“THE PELICANS!!!! BWAH-HA-HA!!!”

NATE: “Wha’ kinda’ dumb shit name is that?”

“BWA-HA-HA!!!!!”

The laughing calmed and they continued their debate.

“The Pelicans! That’s the dumbest name I ever heard. How can you root for the Pelicans?”
“I didn’t, dude”

“How did you go, like Bok, Bok, Bok?!”
“That’s a chicken”

“How does a Pelican go?”
“Like I would know? Like I own a beach house?”

“Seriously. How does it go? SQWA-awk?”
“Yeah well it wasn’t as dumb as your mascot”

“My mascot?”
“Yeah. YOUR mascot. The Chiefs”

“What’s wrong with the Chiefs?”
“At least we didn’t culturally rape the Pelicans”

Silence. The most surprising silence I ever heard. After all the dumb shit they’ve been laughing at, I was expecting them to fall on the floor. I was biting my lip, catching tears in my mouth, holding my bladder trying not to laugh at this rather sober stoner insight and the imagery of the Yankee army forcing Pelicans into war camps in the Wild, Wild West.

And then Nate, good old Nate.

“He’s right. Chief’s IS a stupid name. That shit’s fucked up”

Nate is right. Shit’s is fucked up. I excused myself and retired to Vandrew, our humble abode…

…and giggled myself to sleep.

________________________________

Pelican is a pretty dumb mascot. But for the record, it’s not the worst…er, sorry guys…worser. And honestly, Chiefs is not the worser either. Please take my hand to the following link. Make sure you are not drinking milk, coffee, soda, etc. while you read these. It will come out your nose:

www.tekonsha.k12.mi.us/scaa/teamnames.htm

Couple of things that I’d like to point out here:

1) During heated football games, do they spell all of F-I-G-H-T-I-N-G-S-A-N-D-C-R-A-B-S in Port Lavaca, Texas? “Gimmee an ‘F’!!”

2) My personal favorite?

Hoopeston, Illinois - The Cornjerkers!!

3) My vote for most offensive name? It’s shared between Dickinson, North Dakota AND Freeburg, Illinois AND Esterville, Iowa AND Unionville, Missouri AND McLaughlin, South Dakota AND Butternut, Wisconsin AND Hurley, Wisconsin

Let’s go MIDGETS!!!

- Jason

Secondly, Spinner.com has been classy enough to stream our entire album, Pilgrim, on the site.  Check it out right here