the son in law

The son in law

This weekend I headed into the wild. It is a lot like the Son in Law. Unfortunately its not with a babe but my all to male roommate, and I was not given the opportunity to feign a proposal and embarrass myself with farm work. If only my name was crawl. Does anyone remember how all of P. shores characters were fish outta water hippies with one syllable first names? Crawl, Kweef, and if I’m not correct his character in Encino man is Stony Brown.

This week NI hit up more of the rocky mountain area. I needed some work out of alan so I booked 3 rooms. 2 for the band, and one for Alan. No distractions, no partying, no monkey business! I feel like the dad that leaves a young Tom Cruise in charge of the house and says, “NO PARTYS.” Isn’t that just inviting a party? That sentence is like a magic spell for Wayfairers and a chimp in a Hawaiian shirt.

Twas not. I called up the hotel in Salt Lake City and they said now if you pay 59 you get a normal room. BUT if you pay 67 you get a mountain view. I was sold. I told called Alan and Leanne and discussed how I had given them something no one else could… a mountain view. I even made Alan call me as he was entering the room to ensure that there were mountains in the view. The conversation went something like this

Danny- Is there a mountain view?
Alan- Hey buddy, alright Im walking into the room right now… takin a look… alright yes! The fridge is full of mountain dew!
Danny- NO! NO! NO! Is there a mountain view! I don’t care about the mountain dew!
Alan- Yeah I guess you can see a couple mountains, you can see the mormon temple its really beautiful
Danny- I don’t care about that! I paid for a Mountain View and god damnit you will get a mountain view!
Alan- I don’t care its nice

This convo was useless I had to try my luck with the band. I received a text from Leanne. It said, “you’ve received picture mail.” A ha! She has sent me a photo of the Mountain View from her room! At least somebody got use out of my extra 8 bucks.
It showed a couple skyscrapers, a hill and absolutely no mountains! I almost snapped my blackberry knock off in 3. One for each Mountain View room. I did not even bother calling Jason because I assumed his spot had been turned into a cave.

The show went well, Alan finished parts 1 and 2 of the Grizzly bear remix, and they headed off to Boise… All good right? Wrong. Red Lion hotel in SLC, the next time we come to SLC you will get me my Mountain View room. Don’t give a sh*t about ur mountain dew, I don’t manage snowboarders, I manage rockstars, and the only liquid we need is booze. Otherwise I’m gonna get all SLC punk on your ass.

In other news two of our 3 NYC shows are sold out! We are looking for support. I have been working my ass off on our remix comp. In early January NI will be coming out with a couple new songs, 2 videos, a collaboration with akron family, and touring Australia. I spoke with my good friend jerry Soer (Australian manager extraordinaire) and he said that he heard NI on triple J radio (the Australian equivalent to BBC1). Popfrenzy is doin their job.
Here are the committed artists for the Psychic Chasms remix comp, Yeasayer, Health, Alaska in Winter, Crocodiles, Le Tigre, the Album leaf, Sleigh Bells, Antlers, and many more. It will be BOMB.

That’s all I got. I’m gonna put on my converse boots and march around this gorgeous river behind the house. This morning I was skipping stones and I felt like Prince in purple rain when he takes his lady to the lake in high-heeled boots, and a purple trench coat. If only there was a special lady for me to pull the ole’, “that’s not lake Mititonka” trick on… Will you be my special Mititonka lady?
Write it down.

skinny love?

wow. It has been a long time. All of you can stop holding your breath. Danny is here to blog. So much has happened in the past four months that I will attempt to briefly summarize each but I assure you each were far more awesome than this brief explanation.

Where to begin? The last time I blogged was June 5th. It was a summer of work. I went to class every day for 2 hours then started managin duties. I left my apartment maybe 5 times? Lets skip all that work bullsh!@t and get to the porn star party.

Event 1. VEGA west coast tour.

The boys and I left on a sunny morning in Dallas texas. For our first east coast tour in early summer I decided it was necessary to take something classy... so Enterprise gave us a gigantic black, escalade esque vehicle. Twas awesome. However, the VEGAS soon learned that large, baller suvs use a lot of gas. For this next tour I decided that we were going to forgo lookin bad ass for a little practical utility. Thus, the chrysler minivan. It was the best of times. I was decked out in basketball shorts, sunglasses and of course my trusty bluetooth (which the band makes fun of me for but I dare you to try hands free... I fucking dare you). We headed straight for el paso. A waft of burrito filled the car and Alans mexi senses kicked in. After a delicious meal, and even better sunset we headed to Arizona.

Our first show in cali was a gay bar in San Diego. Or maybe it was second? They all run together at this point. Both were packed. Unfortunately for the promoter, said promoter gave us two bottles of sky... I'm not sure why but the hospitality was certainly appreciated. We crashed at one of our label heads house.

Next night we hit up Pomona. It was a quaint and wonderful little city. Our hotel was BADASS. Breakfast was super fancy, therefore slightly confusing. I felt like leo in titanic. There were multiple forks. Despite this confusion we enjoyed Yuca fries? Ever had em? It was my first time as well and let me tell you brother they are bomb diggity. When we had, had our way with pomona we headed off to LA. City of dreams. Little known fact, the vegas are not massive fans of LA. We genuinely prefer NYC but it is a fun place to visit. Our hotel kicked ass! whoa! it was above the 101 (where pulp fiction was shot. try the smoked salmon omelette... simply divine).

the only thing that sucked was that everyones room was filled with famous stars. not bad right? WRONG! My room had nothing but hot dudes all over it. Alan and Jasons room had like marylin monroe etc.. and I had leo, clooney and the rest of oceans eleven minus any and all babes. sigh. but I did see the time warner cabel guy.... and a lot of italians...

We played this established party called.... hmm I dont remember the name now but it was nuts. The place is absolutely packed by like 10 pm. To be quite honest I was a little nervous. Besides binary the La scene is all about super duper hard electro. And my boys def. dont fit the bill. Even so, they played a great set and won some hearts. I saw this one little alt kid wearing a pair of sunglasses that were lit? Is this a fashion thing among kids now? I remember when sunglasses were sunglasses!

Anyway, we headed off to Sacramento. My cali geography was piss poor prior to this tour but it soon got better. I learned that the drive from La to sacramento is much like dallas to lubbock... long and smells like sh#t. There are a few pretty mountains, but not much to see. We got to Sacramento late and stayed in this super fancy shmancy hotel.

Now Ive told this story a million times so ill keep it short. Our stuff was stolen. we parked in the wrong garage. Desole. I spent the next day on the phone with AM, vancouver, enterprise, canada, obama and our saviors... binary.

After hearing about our tragedy and subsequent inability to travel to Vancouver (so sad about that) Joshua legg and his homies booked us some great dj gigs in LA and even let us crash at a wonderful house in LA with a view of the city. We relaxed, djd, saw some movies went to a porn star party (its own story) and headed home.

Event 2. MONOLITH!

During this time neon indian knda blew up, so we were asked to come play at colorados finest... red rocks. Now if youve never been it is pure magic. The indians were in Chicago on Wednesday playing a kia event. On thursday I was in class at noon and on a plane at 2. I flew first class (gift from a friend) and I gotta say... very nice... I spent most of my time drinking excessively upfront and demanding more pretzels.

I arrived in CO with no agenda for my first day. My good ole buddy robby had a friend pick me up adn before i knew it we were speeding next to some really gorgeous mountains. I spent my night in boulder. Met some cool peeps, ate some buffalo, or maybe it was bison... either way it was pretty damn good.

Net day I went to monolith and checked in. Our wonderful agent bojan and company arrived ready to party. We decided that our clothing was wholly inappropriate for the cold weather and went to this INCREDIBLE thrift shop. i got this fancy sport coat for like... 4 dollars?

That night we got all spruced up and headed out to see the yeah yeah yeahs. The next day we arrived at the festival around noon and got ready for some bomb shit. Monolith was awesome artist accomadations. We met up with the chromeos and discussed the upcoming VEGA album (to be produced by chromeo and released on DT). They are the nicest guys ever. In addition to nice people the tenst were chock full of tacos and beer... could you ask for anything better?

We saw Phoenix from a wonderful vantage point, method man and redman, and of course chromeo. All awesome. Most def. my fav festival of the year. I was soon eating pretzels a mile high.

Event 3. ACL!

Alan and I shared as he describes it, "a might ducks moment." We were eating in Jasons Deli before the neon indian after show with harlem and !!!. I was trying to enjoy my turkey club and declining calls but after our agent called for the 50th time I said alright, gotta see whats up. And he said, "hey your playing acl." We jumped up and down in Jasons deli, yelled a lot...finished our food... and then ran outside. I THEN HAD TO GO TO CLASS. Oh gawd Im an awful student these days...

Our acl experience was perrrrrfect. I bullshitted our way into a trailer, then realized that we had a trailer. We got soaking wet, drunk, played rockband, rode around on golf carts and loved every minute. We then went to mowhawk for a kickass VEGA set with nasa. Our green room got a lil axel rose. We had 2 many homies and 2 little green room. I got a little drunkenstein, kicked some peeps out, argued with a guy and went home. GREAT WEEKEND. more on this later.


Event 3. CMJ

This time I skipped class. My flight left austin at 5 am. I drove myself, got miserably soaked on my way in, passed out and woke up in Atlanta... HATING LIFE. ok whos ever flown to atlanta? I flew on the ugliest flight ever. I dunno what was in the water, but if you werent wearin huntin gear and readin skymall you were S.O.L.... I did read some sky mall.

CMJ was just nuts. We went on a shopping spree at topman, where ronnie bought his infamous wolf ring. We went in lookin like kids and came out lookin like civil war generals.

we played in some crazy Chinese mall? In china town, smelled like dried fish but man was it fascinating. I just walked around for hours inspecting the area. Its like you enter a different country.

We had late nights and I had early mornings. Meeting after meeting. Although I did get some free cappucino and breakfast.

After a fancy meetin the kids and I went up stairs at this wonderful hotel called the ace hotel. I really liked it.

*SECRET REVEALED FOR BABES- wanna win dannys heart? give him cured meat. you can take a carissimi out of the Mediterranean but never the other way around.

We went gifting at fader/converse. We basically drank beer and had minions running around this crazy loft handing us clothes. I lied and said I was in neon indian to ensure I got some kicks and pants. Our lawyer was smart enogh to peace out. Once we were done a well wishing photographer indicated that we now had to take photos wearing our new gear for the website. I was like, "hey man Im a behind the scenes guy... no photos!" and in an attempt to be nice he said, "fuck that man! your a part of the band get in there!" I sheepishly moved into the camera and am now in some official neon indian photos. I play the laptop and cell phone like nobodys beeswax.

I forgot to mention this! The album came out during this period to great success. hearing charlie gibson discuss neon indian was weird... to think that Alan and I went from eatin bagels in brooklyn, to no furniture in austin, to hatin austin, to on air with CG is surreal to say the least. I went to waterloo the first day it was out and had one of the happiest moments of my life (truly) checking out the cd. We charted on billboard! whoo hoo

event 4? 8? none of you are still reading this sh4T.

FFF fest.

WTF!!!! Great weekend. We hung with our wonderful pr agent Daniel Gill. I met health, alaska in winter, and some other great dudes. All sets went well, hung wth some babes, ate some good sangwhiches and drank more sweet leaf and vodka than ANYONE... EVER. My liver, lungs, heart and feet wanted to kill me. Theres more to tella bout this weekend but im tired. In short... The sword... FUCK YEAH. Rattatat... Oh come on... way to interpret your remixes live? It wasnt loud enough, boring, NO STARS!

Thats all I got. Deal with it.

That makes you my competitorrrrrr

This blog has one follower and it is my roommate.

In any event it was a good week in the Land of VCR. After Chicago with NERD and Estelle Alan met up with team Vega in Dallas for a sold out show at the cavern. After this he flew to California (where he still is) for 2 dj sets with the Juan Mclean, The Field and Clever. Yesterday I had another conversation with Columbia. I really do not understand these major label folks. They beg for tracks, say they want to know plans, tell you they would love to hop on the horn and then there is no phone call for like 3 weeks and by that time you have either written them off or forgotten you were supposed to speak in the first place. THEN, you find yourself attempting to enjoy a crown and anchor hamburger and suddenly getting a call from California. California you say? Hmmm I wonder who that could be...BAM! It is Columbia. Perhaps this is planned. Furthermore, no matter how young a rep from a major is I constantly imagine scrooge from Duck Tales. For those of you unfamiliar with Uncle Scrooge; he is a short talking duck that sports a monocle and double breasted suit. He lives in a giant vault filled with gold. When bored, Uncle scrooge leaps into his gold and swims around, periodically soaring through the air like a (whatever kind of fish jumps out of the water) and literally spits out golden coins... much like myself. THAT'S WHAT I IMAGINE. Either that, or Daniel Day Lewis in "There will be blood." I keep waiting for the rep to say "what is this vega?! Why dont I own this! WHY DONT I OWN THIS!" I really hope thats the case. I hope that when we get to California to sign some future contract the rep sits us down at the beach and says "Its alright boys, we'll find some girls...get em liquored up, take em to the peach tree dance." And then once we sign with another label he cocks his eyebrow, growls and says, "that makes you my competitorrrrrrr..."

Thus, it is hard for me to transition from eating a hamburger to discussing such matters.

In other news the VEGA EP is totally done! I have all the songs with me in AIFF format with album artwork. Press campaign starts today. In august there will be an all too vivid single release and then! In August there will be a package of awesome things including

No Reasons Single remixed by: TreasureFingers, Nick Catchdubs (fools gold manager), Futurecop!, Klever, Fredrick Mooj, and a host of others. No reasons music video which will star the entire Vega entourage and I am so PSYCHED to film it! Just think rowdy kids, punks, young fashionable yahoos if you will. Then the boys are practicing for the live set with sparse shows in July such as Alans birthday in Birmingham Alabama. Because eletronic music festivals in the heart of Alabama are huge right? Then its Europe, Monolith, CMJ, and all major markets for NI but more about this later. Also, best interview questions EVER given to Alan from Lithuania. please read on and wonder how you would answer them. We asked Alan to send a press shot from LA...this photo is what we got.

"Please say evertyhing you want.

Why Kate Bush on the picture. Where did you got this?

Why there are no pictures of band members?

How does it feel to remind MGMT? People will compare (in Lithuania) you and them. They are extreemaly popular in Lithuania. Maybe you want somethin to say for them?

How did you created "Should have taken acid with you"?

When Neon Indian has born?

Are you playing gigs?

Have you ever met an indian or have youo been to Death valley? (WTF?!)

Can we put your songs for downloading in our webpage?"

Vega in Chicago with NERD

Its been a bit lonely around the house. Alan has left Joe and I for the windy city. I suppose Pharell and Estelle are a tad more interesting than watching the new Star Trek (SO AWESOME) and Barton Springs. Today I spoke with Banter media about the forthcoming Neon Indian release. We are going to release a very limited number of neon indian cassette tapes in addition to the Vinyl and Cd's! Fantastic idea. Not mine. Tour was amazing. Team Vega went from Austin to Dallas, OKC, Missouri, Chicago, Youngstown (for pie with my nana) and then to NYC. We had excellent turn outs at all concerts (especially studio B. what a night!). Team Vega was at one point slammed with the iron fist of Ohio's finest and given a traffic ticket for 81 in a 65. LAAAAAAME. Other than that it was smooth sailing in our gas guzzling baller ass seqouia. It was quite similar to the gigantic tree. I wonder which is named after which. In Chicago we fulfilled two dreams of mine. After picking up our fabulous agent Bojan in Chicago I proceeded to march us to the Ghiradelli yee old chocolate shop next to the John Hancock center. It is positioned directly next to the Hershey's store. I believe this is so that individuals such as myself can get smug and think about the inferiority of individuals shopping at the Hershey store. After this I made sure that the gang went to Hot Doug's. I learned about this delicious eatery on No Reservations and Anthony was right, it is the MOTHA FUCKIN BOMB! WHOO!!!!! I had a pheasant dog covered in Aeoli and truffle. It made my tummy twinkle. Vega plays in Dallas on June 3rd and then Alan is off to Cali, then Australia! Are you jealous? Im jealous. Luckily Joe and I still have the new Star Trek and Barton Springs. They wont go to Australia without us.