hey everybody!

it’s been great fun here at YOTR, and i definitely have not forgotten about you, my great adventures, or my need to compile them into a book.  however, in the near future, while i’m working on music, writing, touring, etc., the majority of my info will be over at http://pjbondmusic.tumblr.com.  sorry to keep moving you around.  at some point i’ll try to even get fancy and buy a domain name.  until then, you’re smart enough to find me over there.  so i’ll probably occasionally write something new on here, but most news and things of import will be over at my new home.  thanks so much for the continued awesomeness, and i can’t wait to share more stories with you.  all the best.

pj

I am now three quarters into my tour with koji and our buddy pete, and it’s been great. Last night we played a bit of a marathon show with five bands and four acoustic groups in Howell, mi, and it helped instill faith in me in people/show goers. Not that’d I’d lost it per se, but it can get really frustrating sometimes how closed minded people can be. I often return to a train ride I took in Belgium. It’d been the tail end of a near 18 hour trek from southern Germany to groez rock, a festival in rural Belgium. After making a few mistakes on the trains and having to reroute multiple times, I eventually made it to a place where I could tell the prevalence of young kids meant I was close and could ask for help to the festival. This young hardcore/scene looking kid seemed nice enough and when I asked was more than willing to let me accompany him. As we waited for and subsequently rode the train and then shuttle and walked he told me all about their scene and talked shit on just about everything that wasn’t under the “hardcore” umbrella, where he still had strong opinions. When I meet people like this it upsets me because it often leeches into other aspects of their lives. All of a sudden you realize they’re homophobic, xenophobic, or just plain assholes. Not always, but often enough to upset me.

So while listening to this kid slag everyone off, in his odd lisp that sounded of a tongue too big for his mouth, I realized I’d be wasting my time trying to argue with him, so I just tried to offer some other views, politely, then kept quiet until I knew where to direct myself. I soon met up with some great friends, some old, some new and forgot about the long road. The shitshow that the night turned into still could not curb my happiness.

How is any of this relevant? Last night there were nine groups, none of which sounded the same. The first two groups went from beastie boys inspired rock/rap to tongue in cheek soft and sweet female songwriter. It twisted and turned up until the last two groups, koji who played to 120+ perfectly lovely and attentive people who then gave just as much love in the form of sing alongs, dancing and finger pointing to an amazing youth crew hardcore band, brothers, from grand rapids, mi. So in five short hours we ran the gamut of “rock/pop” and had a blast and felt alive and celebrated our unity and differences. Howell, mi, you have my love and respect. This is what it’s about.

Florida was wonderful, it really was lovely to us. koji and I are about halfway through our near 5 week tour. It feels nice to be out now. The first week or so were a bit harder for me, as I had gotten used to being in Asheville for a few months. It’s odd to feel comfortable with such transience, as if a nomadic life were natural. Perhaps it is, from an historical perspective. We, as a people, were probably closer to nomadic in some way or another for longer than we’ve been stationary. At very least i’d assume early peoples needed to travel every few years or so, at least until agriculture was fully realized. So, if traveling meant survival, then my life makes much more sense. Survival of the heart is important, and we need to seek out new and sometimes scary opportunities to find what we need, happiness, love and comfort.

Some highlights of my most recent seekings have been riding rollercoasters at busch gardens with our buddy Ryan, doing some really intense people watching, and then going to Miami and seeing people of an entirely different caliber, but perhaps equally as engaging as a train wreck. Gainesville also was wonderful to me, as I got to see some great friends in the band Spanish gamble, a gritty, melodic punk band. Their neighbor shut down the backyard acoustic show we were throwing, though only temporarily. An aging hippy, she explained that she liked what we were doing but had wake up early for her job, which was monitoring the pesticides that go on our food. It’s always odd when you’re so immersed in a subculture and an outsider speaks to you in their vernacular. Ostensibly we shouldn’t have felt much difference between us, but between age and lifestyle, it seemed we spoke different languages.

Yesterday we played Macon, GA, which seemed deserted and smelled of an old paper mill. However, the small, lovely book store had a perfect little venue in the back and a nice handful of kids came out, making what could have easily been a bunk Tuesday night turn out quite beautifully. As a whole, while the shows haven’t been huge, we’ve had a really positive tour so far. I’m hoping it maintains or improves, but either way it’s feeling cool.

Still making plans for my next moves. Got some last minute ideas that I’m going to try to pull together. Hopefully I can work something out.

What do you have going on?

Hi. I’m back. It’s been a while, I know. To catch you up, I was staying in Asheville, nc, working in a kitchen, working in a screen printing shop, writing songs, meeting lovely folks and enjoying being in one place for a short time. But now I’m back on the road. I’m out for a month touring with a great musician named koji as well as our buddy Pete. The last few days took some getting used to after being in place for a bit, and a few of the shows were rough, but last night slayed. We played a house show in oneonta, ny, and it was awesome. Last time I played there it was to seven people in a bedroom and this time was a completely packed living room, kitchen and hallway. People were piled atop each other and the love was palpable. Nights like that plaster a smile on my face and reinvigerate me in a way few other things can. And sure, I miss Asheville and my family and friends, but if moving my heart and songs around the world are what I’m meant to do, or at least think I’m supposed to, well then it’s what I need to do. Hopefully we will keep meeting great people and pushing ourselves and others to make honest, heartfelt decisions that make our worlds bigger and better. Here’s to good times.

i just finished catching up with my older brothers blog, panchosvia.com, which you should definitely check out, and more than ever i’m bummed i decided to cancel my upcoming uk/europe tour.  you didn’t hear anything about it because i decided to cancel it before i told anyone it was happening.  i guess that’s the way it goes when you plan things far in advance, or in this case, not quite far enough in advance.  i also have been thinking about how incredible it is to get to tour and to experience life as a bit more of a local than a tourist, but am now feeling a bit like i’ve missed out on some other beautiful opportunities.  touring means i can make a little money to offset the cost of traveling, but at the same time it means i never have a job so never have enough money to do the things like eat nice meals and see fancy sites, try loads of local beers, or most importantly, stay in a city for more than a night.  so, i’m hoping over the next year to change that a bit.  i’m already really enjoying the love of asheville, nc, and i will be sad to leave here.  but i hope to spend some time in gainesville in the fall, then out west in the winter.  perhaps some time in san diego, and hopefully some time in portland.  i want to be less of a visitor to these places, and now that i don’t have to push full forward all the time i’m really looking forward to slowing it down some.  i’ve had the lovely pleasure of meeting loads of new friends and musicians in NC, as well as had time to write music, work on the book (though not nearly as much as i need to), cook loads of food and generally enjoy a somewhat more normal schedule.  and sure, this blog has not been overly exciting lately, but that’s part of the beauty.  when it starts back up it will explode.  so, wait for the explosion.

I just finished singing songs. I was playing for over an hour on new tunes I’ve been carving out over the last few weeks. It’s interesting to reflect on some of this music and feel like it was never actually written, but in fact that it always existed. Of course, this is not the case, but creating a new song can be rather daunting, and going over a half written one can be rough but way less so than looking at a blank page. But once the songs start to take some serious form it’s almost as if they always were. This is a beautiful but occasionally hard feeling to stomach. Arriving at that near finished feeling is so rewarding but it also is scary as it feels so far away whilst writing new stuff. I do know though that it’s possible and I need to continously push forward.

One of the new songs finds me fumbling through ideas and phrases over a dark, quiet movement, and I keep finding myself gravitating towards the line “while falling asleep in my back seat,” and it automatically brings me back to a night in the not too distant past wherein I found myself without a place to stay, in of all areas, NYC/northern jersey. Enough things happened where it was too late or people weren’t answering my calls or roommates wouldn’t let me stay, that i ended up driving all over and eventually pulling behind the music shop where I used to work and putting my back seats down and trying to sleep in the ever warming early summer heat. The thing that most worried me was the temple next door as their staff once threatened to call the police and tow a trailer I’d left for a few days. Luckily i got a few hours of uncomfortable sleep before sun began to bake me and the people driving past me forced me out of dear old sweet pea. A quick covert piss later I was on my way. Seeing as it was about 8 am, way earlier than my standard waking our, i felt immediately productive. By 10 I’d gotten an oil change, cleaned out and organized my entire car, including my serious merch setup, had breakfast and attempted to sell stuff at best buy. It was a wild series of events.

Oddly, I compare this to busking (read: playing on the street for money), in a way. I find the most nerve wracking parts of busking to be the setup and the breakdown. Other than occasionally seeing cops or grounds patrol, I don’t worry or feel intimidated or upset or anything. I have fun and hope it works out. Similarly, when i once slept in the park and broke into a college building to sleep in their lounge, the moments of most hightened fear were pre and post, the obvious discovery moments. But overall, the sleeps and busking were and have been great and it’s interesting that so much anxiety can pervade these mostly harmless actions. However, every time I do something of this nature I feel slightly less scared. I also am fully aware that none of my situations were or are remotely close to those that a homeless person or someone steeped in poverty might experience. I don’t know their troubles and wish them the absolute best in improving their situations. But, I do feel that in some small way that mini fear I experienced might lead me to beginning to understand the life that some face and hopefully allow me to work toward helping them. And at very least, they definitely make me appreciate my home, warm food and friends all the more. I hope you’re warm/cool tonight, among loved ones and feeling amazing. I send my best to all of you.

hello all,

i want to call all people who are feeling creative and looking for something to make and/or contribute to this summer.  my goal is to get as many people trying new ideas and hopefully being able to not only showcase it for them but also to have it play a part in what i do.  the two main things i’m thinking of are videos and t-shirts/posters. if you’re interested, please get in touch.  pjbondmusic@gmail.com.

t-shirts/posters: 

i need new designs for t-shirts/posters and have a few pretty sweet ones on hold, but would rather work with someone else and create something fun together.  so, if you can draw, use visual computer programs, or have any other ways to create t-shirt designs, i have ideas, would love to hear yours and have printing presses at my disposal.  i’m currently working at a print shop that does awesome stuff and have been given full access to all of their shirt and poster print areas as well as to the materials, so it seems a shame to not utilize this awesome tool.

videos:

i really want to amass a great deal of video content and think it’d be really sweet to have a video for each song from my album.  sonic youth (as well as i’m sure a load of other bands) have done this and i really like the idea.  i’m currently working on live videos and video shorts, but i also think that me making videos for these songs isn’t the best idea because i’m too close to them.  i know what all of the nuances of the songs are about, i know the full story and back story.  but you don’t. and you could interpret the song in a way i never saw coming and that could be amazing.  furthermore, it’s a way to get the creative juices flowing.  if you’ve ever been interested in video, now is the time to try, because you have a preset soundtrack, time, basic idea, so many starting points with you fully deciding the ending point.  if it’s awesome, that will rule for both of us and everyone who enjoys it.  if it sucks, who cares?  it was totally worth trying.  if you want to do this and don’t have a specific song you want to try out, definitely let me know, and i can steer you towards one that isn’t being worked on. 

so that’s that.  i hope you’ll join me in my adventures.  and if you have your own that you want me to join you in, well please don’t hesitate to ask.  this street goes both ways, i’m just tossing out what i’m vibing.  i hope this finds you all wonderful and look forward to hearing from you.  write soon.

pj bond // pjbondmusic@gmail.com