Stewed, Screwed and Tattooed

Also known as: two days of fun in the sun at Ink and Iron! I always tell myself that I will never come back to Long Beach again (after the incident with "long beaches' finest" last year and the threat of DEBZILLA) but low and behold here I was at the 6th annual ink and iron fest! I tried to go last year but I was met by an ex at the gate, I did a b-line out of there sooooo fucking fast... This was technically my 2nd ink and iron (er, aka "EXFEST") even though I made a valient attempt last year ... We played an awesome show with Eagles of Death Metal and the Bronx.....love love love the Bronx and the WHITE DRUGS record (www.thebronxxx.com) ....I think everyone should do themselves a favor and buy this.....if I had to sound like a guy I would totally want to sound like Matt......soooooo the show was rocktastic! We unveiled a ton of new tshirts (I'll post these pics soon!) and had a really rad chick helping us on merch (on top of our sexy "merchick" Elia) which was refreshing cause a lot of times you end up with dicks selling your merch at venues (er, like mean people, not....well real dicks) Sometimes you want say something like, "I'm sorry, are we giving you a cut of our merch in exchange for your bad attitude?" The stage crew was a little rough too, but they came around, they always do! I think the vibe was a little iffy at first because it's fucking long beach....saw lots of "new beach alliance" stuff too, which always reminds me of my punk rock hb/lb roots....77' style punk rock n' roll and the Hostage records heydays! In the end it was great to come home to lbz and watch everyone singing along.... There were a shitload of cool vendors we know and love.....Lisa from http://www.switchbladestiletto.com/ was there and Tres Noir....plus our favorite tattoo artist Lindsey Carmichael (GOLD RUSH TATTOO is where we get ours done! http://www.goldrushtattoo.com/ ), Monster Matt was there with Rock Rebel (*sick old school looking monster tees and fangs!*) as well as the one and only Adam Shaw pushing da Innes! We don't really wear INNES or anything, we just like to shout out Adam who we spent a lot of time on the 2 Dropkick tours with... Honestly, even though I was there 2 days, they weren't full days and I didn't really have too much time to browse the vendors, so that's all the vendor stuff I can share...I was too busy wondering where my next free-esque drink was coming from....

Me and the lil' homie April



EAGLES killed it the first night...that singer is pretty smoking in a strange "Joe Dirt" kinda way....I knew more songs than I thought I did and its safe to say I am now an eagles fan......same with The Sonics.....they rocked the shit out of Saturday night or was it the vicodine I took? (for medicinal purposes only of course ;)

"life's a garden....dig it"



I was having a little too much fun to leave last night so I stayed aboard the QUEEN MARY with a bunch of my friends....its always when you least expect something to happen that it does! I had a real live GHOST experience....I was laying down about to nod off when I looked over by the window to see a man hunched down....he looked like he was packing a suitcase or duffel bag....he was totally period clothed, wearing a brown slack/ jacket uniform with the traditional pointy navy hat.....I couldn't believe what I was seeing!!!! It wasn't really scary, it felt really regular, like I was looking in on someone. He was just going about his day, very normal. I blinked and he was gone....I then realized what I had seen totally wasn't real! I've taken the QUEEN MARY haunted tour a zillion times, but never seen anything...I've always believed in stuff like that, but never physically experienced it (once again, probably not the painkiller!)...so I orginally went for a boozing good time and left with a pretty good ghost story....yay ink and iron.....





Just a side note: All day we were talking about, where the fuck do these tattooed people hide? Like I'm tattooed, but we are talking severely tattooed....don't get me wrong, its sooooo hot, but where do they work? Live? Hang out? 'Cause I rarely see them out in the real world. TATTOO PLANET?

Oh and apologies: to the Bronx for the petty theft we engaged in while stealing their PB n' J....it was a void in mine n' suzis kitchen we HAD to fill!

Hightlight: Offering Jeff from the Aggrolites (our labelmates, duh!) a beer out of his own cooler...they had moved ours and put them in our spot....classic! "would you like a beer? Uh, it's kinda your own beer.....can I offer you one of your own beers?"