L.B.C.
September 2nd, 2010
It’s another premier summer evening and here’s another premier spin, folks– the latest from LBC’s own The Red River. Only on 66.6 BRVE…
Randy Kubo presents…
September 1st, 2010
From the same director who brought you the #1 smash hit “Fucks you thinks you so smart” here comes “Unconfined Space (as defined in the construction business)”
u just mad cuz im stylin on ya
August 29th, 2010
Yesterday, Bill finally responded to all the fanmail he has acquired over the years. So much, in fact, that folding each individual letter, stuffing them in envelopes, licking, sealing them and addressing them took the help of up to eight people at one point. Brave’s House was a beehive.
If you’ll be in Astoria Oregon on September 4th for any reason, Bill will perform at Catch That Beat 5. I couldn’t find anything about it on the internet, so details are hazy, but the festival used to be curated by Jona Bechtolt. I’m not sure if he has anything to do with it anymore. I don’t know what time or where Bill will be playing but perhaps I will announce that information when it is made available.
In other news, Nelson is preparing for his barbaric motorcycle journey home from Alaska. As you may or may not know, he is recovering from a nasty ankle surgery after pulverizing it on his skateboard this Spring. Your feet are important for riding, as are experience, brains and luck.
We have been playing some basketball in the evenings after all our work is done and settling into the nights with Ultimate Jordan, a 5 DVD collection of featurettes, specials and MJ’s five greatest games in full. The NBA has many things, but an equal to Jordan is not one of them. Watching him spin around, cross and jump over everything in his path, I thought, “There’s Brave.”
Don’t forget to visit Bill’s blog for all your Red River needs.
Calmer’n you are…
August 26th, 2010
I’m bored of writing the Alaskan Memoirs for now. Maybe I’ll continue sometime, maybe I won’t. It was a huge trip and the thought of including all the cool things that happened is overwhelming. In the mean time Bill has a new blog featuring unreleased, demo, exercise and otherwise unavailable Red River songs for download.
Here it is: http://seamajor.blogspot.com/
Enjoy!
Lite All Nite Memoir, Pt. 2
August 4th, 2010
I realize last time I did not introduce everyone in our entourage. In alphabetical order (by last name) the Brave: Team Alaska is as follows:
Maia Boboia, Keeley Boyle, Dan Galucki, Thomas Himes, Nelson Kempf, Clayton Knapp, Sumner LaVeque, Anna Ottum, Bill Roberts, Dhani Rosa, Manuel Soares, Allison Soule and Mike Turner.
"And so, it is with these helpless fools we revisit our suspenseful tale, deep in the loins of the Alaskan east..."
In a Tok hotel room meant to hold two, thirteen of us woke up on the morning of July 12th prepared to arrive that night in Kenai. The rest of the drive was a quick and easy 12 hours, and took us through Palmer, Wasilla and to Anchorage. Finally, all that stood between us and our destination was the Cook Inlet. With two hours left, Bill joined me in the U-Haul where he read Tender Is The Night out loud until we arrived at the Kempf residence in Soldotna.
Nelson’s parents are named Jayson and Jackie and his little bother is Anderson, who is eight years old. The first time I met Anderson last year, he had built a hydrometer or something and was trying to explain to me how it worked. I say “trying” not because he didn’t know what he was talking about, but because it was all above my head. We also called him once because we didn’t know how a generator worked, and he explained it to us. His two most charming traits, however, are his dirty mouth and his insistence on calling his mom and dad by their fist names.
“Jackie and Jays”
Currently in Alaska the salmon are abundant and Jays might as well have written Salmon Cooking For Dummies. They knew we were arriving that night and had a fish feast for us with 3 differently prepared salmons. It was a welcome treat after 3 days of Cheez-Its. Anderson showed us his pet rabbits and sneaked kisses on the ladies to entertain everyone until we all fell asleep. In the morning we ate breakfast and made the 20 minute drive to Kenai where Keeley’s mom lives. Also where the family would be returning to from Seattle. After we unloaded the U-Haul we drove to our final destination in Nikiski where David, Keeley’s dad, lives.
Camp David as it is known to the Boyle family, is an area of land between three houses belonging to David, his sister Jennie and their parents Owen and Fleur. It’s a kind of strange, recreational woods in the shape of a triangle with a house at each tip. In the belly of it, you can find a hundred foot swing made of a lawn chair, a softball golf course, horseshoes, a baseball diamond and all kinds of paths leading from one house to another. The main course, if you will, is Kidney Lake. Though it isn’t exactly in the Camp David limits, the backyard of Owen and Fleur’s house is on its beach which makes it part of the whole shebang. In the summer months you can swim, windsurf, canoe and even sail in Owen’s homemade sailboat. There’s also a floating trampoline to jump on. All of which we were excited to do. So much so, that before unpacking, eating or visiting with Keeley’s family everyone stripped down to their skivvies and jumped right in the damn lake.
- Anna Ottum
- Anna Ottum
I watched from the beach as everyone flailed around in the cold water, with a longing only The Martian Ambassador could empathize with. Though I don’t swim, I like boats. Mike and Nelson also weren’t swimming for different reasons, so we decided to take the canoe out for a spin. We had a pleasant cruise over to another side of the lake where we heard the Loons calling.
- Anna Ottum
When we returned everyone had left the lake. We parked the boat and walked back through the camp to David’s house. Keeley’s dad is too legit for shit. He’s an ex-wrestler turned English teacher by day, guitar god by night. I think he just turned 41 or 42 but he looks younger, stronger and healthier than I do. His house is where we’d be basing our operation out of for the most part. It’s more or less a central point between a bunch of the shows we were playing, so we’d return back there each night. He put up with us valiantly, going so far as to feed us and let us shred in his living room. For the night we got some much needed rest and in the morning we set up our gear and got some much more needed practice. That night, Keeley, Nelson, Bill and I had a radio show to do in Kenai with Robb Justice on 91.9 FM. Robb is Kool & The Gang, real cool. His speaking volume is incredible.
We came back to the house to everyone watching Dave’s favorite movie Road House on BluRay. I’m more of a Ghost fan myself, but I’m always down on Patrick Swayze… Uh, I mean, can always get my dick wet on some Patrick Swa–I MEAN, I can always enjoy a Swayze film. There we go… Later, Dave made a giant bonfire to drink around and we cooked hot dogs and s’mores under the navy midnight sky. In the morning, we had a workshop intended to teach kids about playing music, having a band and writing songs. Going to bed, we were nervous for this, and thought that was like asking Patrick Swayze to teach an acting class.
And we slept…
Photos by Maia Boboia & Anna Ottum. Stay tuned for Pt. III in the coming days. In the meantime check out The Red River tomorrow Aug. 5th at Berbati’s Pan. 9PM
Lite All Nite memoir, pt. 1
July 31st, 2010
Hi everyone,
I know we said we’d update the blog every day during our tour in Alaska, but you know we was lyin’. Now we’re home and here’s what happened:
First of all, let me get this out of the way: Brave received an “all expenses paid” grant with the help of Joe Rizzo and the Rasmuson Foundation to tour in Alaska. We had concerts in Seward, Ninilchik, Soldotna, Seldovia, Homer, Denali, Fairbanks and Anchorage. I don’t feel inclined to say anything more than “awesome” about the shows and unless I’m reminded of something truly remarkable from one of them, I will spend the remainder of these posts discussing our extra-curricular activities.
At 1 a.m. on July 9th, 11 of us piled into a U-Haul and our new van, Nadine Bonerblood and drove to Seattle. Keeley’s family has been living there for the last year in a little red house, which at the time of our arrival they were moving out of to go back to Alaska. In the morning, we had two missions before crossing the border: get Bill a passport and pack the U-Haul with Keeley’s home furnishings. By 4 o’clock we’d accomplished both and hit the road. We left the USA in Sumas, Washington and entered Canada in Abbotsford, B.C.
Anchorage, Alaska is 2,555 miles away from Portland and we had to be there on the 12th. The first night, we stopped only for gas and to switch out drivers/passengers between the van and U-Haul. All of the gas stations in Canada accept US currency, for the record. Canada has many of the globally recognizable products and restaurants that America has, but most are stylized in their own “Canadian” way. For example, Reese’s peanut butter cups are simply called Reese, McDonald’s has a cute little maple leaf underneath the golden arches, things like this.
Coal River (Anna Ottum)
The drive was awesome and provided us with plenty of scenic views of mountains, rivers and lakes and all of the animals that frequent them. Moose, bears, bald eagles, foxes, etc. By the second night, we were far north and excited to camp so we stopped in a place called Coal River which is right up by the border of B.C. and the Yukon Territory. We finally had a chance to try out our Vacation Lodge we bought at Wal-Mart. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen one of these, but it’s the kind of tent you can do cartwheels, jumping jacks and hand stands in. Basically a cheaper version of the Cirque Du Soleil tent. We set that up, put on bug spray, grabbed the whiskey and went down to the riverside. We spent a couple hours drinking on the sharp rocks and collecting drift wood. Bill and I successfully launched a felled tree from the beach on a voyage down the river rapids. I drank a few handfuls of river water and it was delicious, but Nelson warned me of “Beaver Fever” so I had no more. We made a fire with our drift wood to heat up our spagettios and ravioli. There was a particularly memorable moment around the fire when someone asked what time it was. Looking at the dark blue sky, we all made estimates of 9:00, 9:15 or maybe 9:30. Our ability to see each others faces and even a thing in the distance reassured us. When someone finally found a phone, we laughed and marveled when we heard, “Holy shit! Dude, it’s 12:15!”
- Various night times. (Maia Boboia)
Lite All Nite was for the first time appropriate and became a strong force on this tour, for me at least.
The next morning we left early hoping to make it to the Alaskan border. We stopped in a city called Whitehorse (which is the capital of Yukon) because we wanted some McDonald’s. Everything is a little more expensive in Canada and this became truly evident when Anna ordered two cheeseburgers without the patties, which ends up simply as bread, cheese, ketchup and mustard. They charged her four extra dollars for the modification. Our next stop was a town called Haines junction where the Alaskan Highway makes its final turn onto the road that brings you into Alaska. Here, a polite young man named Jon Jon saw us from a hotel parking lot across the street and came to us. He was the friendliest guy we’d met on the drive so far, and we spent 20 minutes playing soccer with him and gave him some water. He jumped right up into our van and felt like one of us. We debated taking him with us, but decided that would be wrong and had an emotional departure from him as we drove off into the higher mountains.
The last part of the Canadian drive takes you up through an area called Destruction Bay which is my favorite part of the trip. The road follows the edge of Kluane Lake with some big-assed mountains on the opposite side. The road here is remarkable, I should say, because it is so shoddy. There are orange flags on the side of the road indicating where treacherous surface is, and each time we hit one it caused a small hiccup in our breath or put a little jolt in any word being said.
“Slow do-OW-N!”
“Who built th-ISS road?”
“BBW in the p-ARK.”
We reached the border late, and were welcomed “back home” by two friendly Border Patrol men. It started raining and we spent the next two hours wondering where the hell we were going to sleep. Nothing was open and the ground was too wet to put up the tent with no tarp. Eventually we got to a town called Tok, and tried 6 different hotels which all were booked but the last one where I had to ring a bell which woke up the manager and he gave us a room. Everyone sneaked into the tiny room and covered all of the floor and beds where we slept, happy to be back in the US.
Stay tuned for Pt. 2 in the next few days. Also…
The Red River is playing a concert on August, 5th at Berbati’s Pan. 9PM
Lite All Nite!
July 1st, 2010
Hello!
In a few days, 14 of Brave’s finest will be leaving Portland & Long Beach to drive to Alaska for a two week tour on America’s Final Frontier. We’ll be keeping a daily log, chronicling our fishing and hunting expeditions, as well as a report from the base of Mt. McKinley! Thanks to Mike Turner and Ivy Howland for the posters.
Also:
Thursday, July 15 - Seward
Friday, July 16 - Ninilchik Fair Grounds
Saturday, July 17- Soldotna -Christ Lutheran Church
Sunday, July 18 - Seldovia
July 22 - Carlo Creek - Panorama
July 23 - Fairbanks - The Marlin
July 25 - Anchorage - Snowgoose Theatre
Additionally, with great pride, we announce our first full-length record Little Songs About The Big Picture by The Red River, due out on Sept. 28th, 2010.
We’re reporting live from Nelson’s recovery bed, where he has been horizontal for two weeks after breaking his ankle doing what he should have stopped doing years ago, skateboarding. We have been taking advantage of our downtime to attend to important business: we’re on the verge of learning Scorpion and Sonya Blade’s fatalities and nearing our 100,000th lap of Baby Park. As you can see, we’ve also touched up our website and you can now sign up for our mailing list above.
More to come, without a doubt,
until next time, do yourself a favor and check out The Dream’s new album Love King, out on sister label Def Jam/Radio Killa.
slick talk, pain, and torture
March 5th, 2010
dear readers.
We just woke up to a beautiful, sunny day in Denver. We are staying with Dhani’s Colorado bros, who are the tightest dudes ever, no doubt. My elbows are swollen and hurting because I spent a couple hours last night trying to ride a unicycle while high. We’ve been driving around several countries for over a month and a half now, and will be home in a week, so I thought it’d be a nice time to review the tour. Europe was like mad dope. We went to Scotland, England, France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. All those places were awesome in their own way, but the highlight of our time there was a dude named Tim. He was our tour manager. He also drove, did sound, loaded the van, unloaded the van, and kept everyone in a great mood with his amazingly energetic and genial disposition. The undisputed, nicest man on Earth. In the states Dhani joined up with us to tour manage, sell merch, and open the shows with me. It’s been nasty. In general, people are unsure whether our set is a comedy act or just kind of funny. A girl came up to me after one of the shows and said “You guys were sooooo hiiillllaarious! wait… it was supposed to be funny right?” Another one asked Dhani if he wrote the songs in the van on the way to the show. He didnt. http://vshirazawa.posterous.com/todays-soundtrack-2. The other day we were in Rock Island, IL where we met the dudes at Daytrotter. Super nice, super amazing people. They’re four friends who decided to start a blog together like four years ago, and now, obviously, they’re killin it super hard. We were there for their fourth birthday celebration. check em out homies, daytrotter.com. We had a day off in New York where we got to hang out with our good friends Clayton, Dylan, and Alex. We went to the Russian community, Brighton Beach, as well as Coney Island. All covered in snow and adandoned, it was really fun. we’ll post some pictures from that soon, as well as many other dope shits for ya’ll to peep on. Overall the tour has been really great. Now we’ve got a week left and I’m really excited to get back and hang out with all the people I love. aight aight.
Brave ’til the Grave
February 28th, 2010
Hello readers. The server has been slow as we have been flooded with hits, but we managed to get some tour photos uploaded for you all. Thanks for all the support! -Brave International blog staff.
