My Long Winding Thoughts

The U.S. jaunt of our celebratory release tour has been incredible so far. I know sometimes I tend to get a little misty and dramatic when it comes to the gratitude that we have for all of those who support us... but I can't help myself, and here I go again. This will be completely unmeasured, uncool, and unclassy. Un- Un- Un-.

It has been a strange few months getting ready for the release of Canopy Glow. There has been overwhelming amount of growth, love, loss and change on all sides of our lives. I'll leave that vague for the most part. Going into the private things would be a little intense and out of context. After the Aloha and Dosh tours, we remixed the entire record with Tony Espinoza and Eli Crews with help from Yoni. They slaved away with us, sometimes working long nights after full work days, sacrificing family time, sleep, food, friends... One night Tony and I were sending things back and forth until 4 am, when I literally passed out on my computer, accidentally sending him hundreds of aaaasdffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff messages on IM. You get the picture. I just want to thank these people for all of their help in the process of bringing the record into a new light. There were times when I literally began to go nuts and needed to be brought back to earth. Erica came over one day and, noting my state, left me a chocolate bar and some hand sanitizing spray... to give you a picture of my mental state, I unknowingly sprayed the sanitizer in my mouth... thinking it was some sort of chloraseptic throat remedy. Point being, I was not in a functional mental space at the time to say the least. We got some mixes of "The River" from Tony and I was so exhausted that I began to flip a little bit, getting really neurotic about things for no reason. Yoni sent me a gentle, "You're going nuts, this mix is great" email. I realized that my perspective on the whole thing was totally shot, but that we were in great hands. To Eli, Tony, Yoni - we are really grateful! Thanks for putting up with us.

I'm saying this all to give a small snapshot of a year long road that lead to the release of this record. I wasn't sure that we'd be able to post something like this closer to the actual release on the 18th since we'll be out of the country, so I thought I would jot some thought down now while there is time.

The last week has been remarkable. We were really surprised and grateful to see so many people at all the shows. To be honest, we imagined a sort of silence around the record release, half full rooms, a general sense that we already had our 15 minutes. But this week will be remembered in high regard - everyone in the room singing. It brings the whole thing into an appropriate perspective - that this band and the community of people outside of the music are part of an indecipherable whole wherein there are no necessary divisions within the hopeful notion that the band is just a conduit for something else. Fan/Friend, Band/Other, You/Me, Republican/Democrat. In a lot of ways, the spirit of the tour enabled a deeper understanding and excitement concerning the election. Thanks so much to all of you who bit torrented the record and sang along. Thanks for the pumpkin pie. The hand-bound book. Hearing about Camp-Thallo. Etc. Etc. Etc. The ongoing correspondence.

Tonight we're playing at home in Chicago at one of our favorite venues, then off to Europe on Monday and Japan before Christmas.

We're planning a really extensive U.S. tour which will begin in late February. Can't wait to see everyone again. Family. Thank you.