Europe - day two - Ville de Lille

Europe - day one

Day one included: Flying to Frankfurt, driving to Belgium, getting a flat tire (the first since the summer of 2004?), playing a festival, watching metal bands, eating meatballs, and wandering around Mons Belgium late at night looking for our place to stay.

Happy birthday to this guy.



(couldn't upload the video until now)

Tuesday news

If you didn't know already, our old friends in Manchester Orchestra have made another record and today, April 21st 2009 you can find it in record stores across the globe. As you might be able to tell from the image above it's called, Mean Everything to Nothing, and it features Anathallo's very own superstar singer Erica Froman (pictured below at her recent photoshoot for the cover of Time Magazine).



They are currently on tour coast to coast, catch them while you can. Dates here.



I should also point out that the aforementioned Manchester Orchestra tour also includes one of the first chances for many of you to see Andrew's new band Fun. They'll have a record coming out in the future with a single (from the image above) finding its way into your ears early next month. And just in case this slipped past your radar, Andrew released a collection of songs that started with his Columbus musical last December. Check it out.

Mammoth Caves National Park

Highlights from today's adventures:


This is what it looked like when Bobby Beams turned off the lights.


Matt climbing out of the cave back towards the light.


Erica and Seth take a view from the top of Makeout Sunset Point.


Ten second timed group shot.

Bummer

Due to circumstances beyond our control our upcoming shows in Bowling Green Kentucky and at Taylor University have been canceled. We were looking forward to returning to both of these places and apologize if you were planning on making it out. The good news? The other shows are still on and promise to be a really wonderful time. Here are a couple of fliers for these shows!

Anathallo on NPR 848

Hi!  It has been a while.  We've been busy doing all sorts of whatnot.  Bret and I did a lengthy interview with the noble Althea from NPR's 848 a little while back.  It's airing this Wednesday from 9 to 10 AM - check it if you want - 91.5 FM.  It will be interesting to see what made the cut.  If you miss the show, it will be posted online here

Just wanted to drop a little note before our show this Friday with friends Sybris and Cains and Abels at the Bottom Lounge.  Hope to see you there.

At the beach

Sorry we've been so absent from yhmmgo, our van decided to spring break this year at South Padre Island (as seen from above). We had a hell of a time tracking it down but were able to rescue it from crazy college coeds before things got out of hand.

Three years ago today...

While the record wasn't officially released until June 6th 2006, we sold our first copies of Floating World at the Temple Club in Lansing Michigan three years ago today. The show was really something special, we were joined by Page France and Those Transatlantics, both of whom I really love. It was also one of the first times I felt like Anathallo had this enormous support from our community pushing us forward into new territory, there was such an amazing mass of friends there, I felt so lucky to be part of the band. Poster below from the four release shows we had designed by the amazingly talented Eric Mortensen.

Image of the day

From Rune Generiussen's "Singles" series.

Black History Month - Harold Washington

In case you forgot (I did), February is black history month and to help celebrate I wanted to share with you a little information about this guy Harold Washington. The first time I came across Mr. Washington was below ground, while walking out of a CTA stop. As I walked, I came across a mural of Chicago's past mayors. There were the obvious lot of old white dudes, the old Mayor Daley, a woman (!), and this African American guy. I said to myself, "What? When did Chicago have an African American mayor?" I later realized his name was Harold Washington, which this building is named after.



I didn't really put it all together until I heard this incredible story on This American Life a while back during the run up to the 2008 elections. Fortunately for us they archive all of their episodes for FREE. Go listen to it when you have an hour, it will be one of the best hours you've spent in a long time (and if you have two hours, listen to any other episode you find, this show has the potential to change your life). Seeing Obama win came as somewhat of a surprise to me, but in many ways it makes sense after the past eight years. Washington on the other hand was a fireball, he was single (have you ever heard of a single politician?), was up against the mayoral incumbent as well as former mayor Richard J. Daley's son (and later to become mayor himself), and ran for office in a extremely racially divided 1984 Chicago. I cannot do him justice here, so go listen to the story here you'll believe in life so much more.