#dontmentionlove

[forabetterlifethanthis]

There is a Light and it Never Goes Out

And it is in my head.

 I can’t stand it much longer.

 Please set me free

[manifestiv]

Gratitude 2018

Thanks for the inspired idea, @justinsymbol!

Sometimes listing accomplishments is therapy.

• January (starting with playing bass in freezing 🥶 🐃 weather in Lewisville w/ our @limpbizkit tribute) I enjoyed working 1 last month of my 12th year (off & on) at Starbucks while we began booking the first 2 legs of the years-in-the-making 8 month long #OctouR2018 to end with the late fall release of our sophomore album God is a Martian 👽 all from Grandma’s in Irving.

• February I got to play a couple last times on bass w/ @secretofboris while tightening #GodisaMartian tracks & tour set lists in @manifestiv

• March MV finished dress rehearsals and began our triangular stint with Rosegarden Funeral Party in TX before Lillith aptly painted the cover of our album in Roswell en route to CA shows ending in Hollywood at Bar Sinister w/ Spirit in the Room

• April began in CA with Compton at Machine before darting up to the Bay, 1st to play Berkeley at @924-gilman, then to our 1st of 3 Oakland shows & returning home to Vallejo at IntegriTea wrapping the South leg before finishing tracking w/ Nate Nauseda in Cotati at Prairie Sun Recording, doing a house show w/ Untamed Creatures after writing a batch of songs (now being considered for live use with an all-star lineup that is collaborating for the first time to play at the Damn Fine Music Fest II at Three Links in Dallas 1/19/19)

• May took us up the coast w/ Striplicker & Die Robot from Santa Cruz w/ Aurora Beam thru Oakland over to Sac w/ Vio\ator & Killer Couture before hitting OR & WA vigorously then returning to recharge @yellowstone-national-park prior to the MV reunion w/ Bloodied & Keldari Station at our 1st of 2 @seventhcirclemusiccollecti-blog1 appearances and reentering TX to our 1st of 2 RFP reunions as well at Fort Worth’s Rail Club for Industrial Knight

• June we continued tour at Armoury in Deep Ellum w/ BATHHØUSE before I returned the next night to SoB on 2nd guitar for Jermaine’s bday show alongside a special vibraphone crossover of #DontMentionLove at Pro Rehearsal Studios, where the day after we recorded a Peter Murphy cover of #CutsYouUp w/ RFP before we canceled the next leg Mid’s remaining dates as support & funds for all involved, MV included, dropped & our Munich friends Maik & Dana got married so we flew to Chicago for my birthday to catch URIZEN to catch our luckily cheap flight via gorgeous Iceland 🇮🇸 to Germany 🇩🇪 (right before Vinnie Paul tragically passed) to stay w/M&D and begin borrowing their VW Polo to prove Deutsch road worthy

• July truly began on the 4th when we met Maik’s friend Alex (obsessed w/ 🇺🇸) then drove to the Czech Republic 🇨🇿 for a few days to hang w/ cool musician Alex before a week in Berlin (new favorite city) then back thru Dachau Concentration Camp (spiritually scarring) before our flight to Ireland 🇮🇪 for a week where we booked it so close to beforehand, Saturday had gotten so full that we had to sleep on the Dublin streets in our suits (blast)

• August began with our hike to & alongside the cliffs of Keflavík 🇮🇸 on our way to DFW in time for me to rejoin SoB to play both The Curtain Club in Dallas for Chad’s Bday & Ridglea Metalfest 2018 in Fort Worth before MV practices w/our time planning in Europe 🇪🇺 on the way to our trek to Tahoe to build for our camp we’d play twice at Burning Man this year, wrapping with the build and the last time we would ever drink, which is when the real fun started

• September began w/ those shows on Playa, a massive camp wide de-dusting at camp leader Iceman’s Donner Lake resort that covered a humongous BM repair that enabled resumption of our OctouR on leg 7: Crown, concluding our round w/ RFP northbound from where we left off in Vallejo & played our final Oakland show this year

• October wrapped its namesake tour’s 8th month hitting Hotel Utah in San Francisco, showing RFP OR & WA, ending up playing our 2nd time to The Observatory w/ Moonchyld & including their volunteering of the RFP van SlowDive time off together while Bummobile was in the shop to drive us to by K&K Sound System for power supplies to replace the one eaten by Playa on the way to a swell lakeside B&B, all before debuting Boise & freezing together in Denver for 2 kickass shows amidst a thrift score of a lifetime (including a Mutiny Information Café debut w/ our fantastically complimentary & stunning eHpH) before getting back to our respective musical agendas back home including multiple DFW metroplex MV dates including an art show & almost won costume contest as ourselves w/ fam @littlesparkfilms & @projectzer0art, both Krautstein & multiple mOBSCENE tributes, and triangulating where MV would settle in the area

• November had a slew of TX shows begin it for both MV & SoB, 2 together, while we executed final steps for album release (mix/master at Mediocre in Leander near Austin w/RFP South leg drummer & all around badass CJ Bills we’d began before 🇪🇺, then the most organic CD packing ever) beginning holiday festivities amidst our move out of Bummmobile into our new pad in Dallas & compounded w/bitter unsweetness of Lillith’s younger brother Joey’s untimely death the day of @nineinchnails in Irving ironically that Lillith & I couldn’t have scored better tickets for (in front of the sound booth) & had much needed abundant camaraderie to a perfect setlist that was the only thing that could have kickstarted the grieving & healing process right

I’d still have to say 2018 won.

• December began with RFP winning multiple @dallasobserver-blog Music Awards they’d earned nominations for while on the road w/us in the fall amidst our final tour leg in 🇺🇸 for a hot minute while we launched our best show yet back at Curtain in Deep Ellum for the #GodisaMartian release with stellar follow-up lineup & regal, directly followed the next weekend by SoB’s direct support slot after fam in Rivethead for the friendly & mind blowing Stabbing Westward who we got the privilege to hang alongside all day making unforgettable memories just before gearing up in the mortuary field for a slew of demo sessions galore for both MV & SoB new material & painting commissions.

It’s not even Christmas, yet 2018’s already won.