everybody is having a birthday now
happy birthday everybody

did you come to mcguffy’s the other night in Dayton?
wasn’t that fun? yes. the answer is yes. these pictures have been submitted as evidence by Matt Vlachos, friend and local independent promotions guru. thanks matt.

here’s me, joe.

do you like my online personality? i really appreciate you reading my ramblings on here. they’re usually so pointless. but i try to be entertaining and informative. i am glad you are still reading.

when i type e-mails, i always hit return all the time. i love return. now we call it enter but on keyboards in the olden days it was return as in return to a new line. now it’s enter as in enter data. anyway i press it frequently.
but i am infrequent with the shift.
it’s just part of my online personality.
i can’t help it.
nobody grades us
nobody cares
we do what we like.

we played a longer set than we set out to play
but it was okay
i had a sore throat
but it didn’t matter once i drank a gallon of water and
got moving
the shirts were white the sounds were loud
it’s always loud in mcguffy’s
did you know, that everything sounds better loud? it’s true. Marshall amps record better when you crank the shit out of them. when the speakers and mics are on the edge of giving out.

did you know that when you see a national tour (and a lot of local and regional shows), the opening bands are always more quiet than the headliner? that’s called saving some PA. so when the main attraction comes on, they sound better and more exciting immediately because they’re louder.

here are my bandmates:

drew phillips plays the bass.
T miller plays guitars and a cello and wears cool clothes and sings beautifully. he really nailed Just Right with me. felt good to play that song. it had been a while.

dan mcquinn makes faces

we had two people fly in from colorado. it’s nice to be reminded that there are some people out there on the other side of the great mississippi who are listening despite our lack of touring lately. thanks for making the trip. that’s a long one.

jacob from Dayton band Blue Karma came out. was good to see him. he is one of the best guitarists i’ve ever met. blue karma’s new stuff is great. eric stewart recorded it with them. we talked shop for a while. the conversation inevitably turned to record labels and new york showcases other unpleasantries and how everything is bullshit and we are broke. that’s musician talk. but we are born to stand outside the club backstage by the dumpster that smells strongly of strangers’ beer vomit and talk about how we are born to do this because it’s worth it. and what the fuck else are we going to do? get real jobs and be miserable? jacob you rock. keep your head up. we have no choice.

we have a couple weeks off. then applefest in sidney and a show at xavier university.

be awesome

joe

i have a sore throat today. blah. i have been so healthy for such a long time. i knew it was coming. i hope it is gone by saturday. the show will go on regardless but it will be less painful without a sore throat.

it has been a while since i’ve written. what has happened? Panel Rejects Closings of Two Big Naval Bases in Northeast. also, we had the annual July For Kings Army Picnic at Eden Park in Cincinnati for the third consecutive year. for the third consecutive year it rained. what are the odds?
* * *
i’ve been trying to find out using google but i’m not sure. can only tell you that august in cincinnati gets about 3 inches of rain on average. the rain let up though, just before the festivities.

these pictures should be on www.jfkarmy.com, but they’re not. they’re here.

Thanks to everyone who came. we had fun. there should be more ways to say “a blast” but there’s not.

there was plenty of food for everyone. and it was totally unhealthy and awesome.

Dan is such a serious hot dog griller. so serious. it’s serious work, grilling of hot dogs.

mmmm…

the other band on the soupie’s bill, The Translation from Chicago, joined us at the picnic for some frisbee. they are pretty good frisbee throwers. and a good band too. but let’s get back to what’s important. frisbee.

also, friend and fan Jaden gave us a mini-T radio controlled car as a gift. i was so enamored with his car at the last picnic (see Success, May 24th) that i guess he thought i should have one. so we will be driving that around in club parking lots.

After the picnic we went to the soupie’s and played a show. It was truly a great night for us. we had an energetic show. old songs and new songs.

thanks to richelle for getting these pictures. it was a packed house. just before we went on there was a long line weaving out the door of the club and into the parking lot. two song encore. good times.

i think the new songs are going over well. mostly. some are more immediate than others. we played “the dark” at soupies. at the end of the song we hang on a suspended chord for a while, and there’s no real sense of resolution. there was some slow, unsure clapping. i had a vision of Marty McFly in Back to the Future finishing his rendition of “Johny be Good”. do you remember that scene? i turned to drew and said “i guess they’re not ready for that.” it was the only thing that came to mind.

it is true that some of these songs are very different than the usual JFK stuff. i hope that we don’t lose any of you in the stylistic transition. i am sure i will be talking about this a lot in the coming months. so i’ll spare you for right now.

we will be debuting yet another new song at McGuffy’s this saturday. come check us out along with Smalltown Sleeper and my sister Amy Hedges. hopefully we’ll have another good crowd. i think so. things are pretty happening right now. feels good. THANK YOU! thanks for coming to shows and being into the band.

we look into the shield

joe

thursday we played our first show at the mad hatter in covington. for a last minute thing (only having ten days to promote) and on a weeknight, it was pretty okay. the PA is not quite big enough for the room, but our fans are smart and stand up front. we played a bunch of new stuff.

the show was okay. they’re mostly good lately. i mean it’s really been a while since i walked off the stage thinking “jesus. we totally sucked.” some have more energy or more power or we’re a little tighter or whatever, but i think we are really playing well overall. for years our shows were really hit and miss. i always felt that way, and thought “when is is just going to be consistent?” and i guess now it is. we still have a lot of work to do, and need to keep improving, but at least the super sucking is very rare. so hurray for rarely sucking. less worrying.

i think our sound guy jerry was having some fun with the vocal effects. i need to talk to him about that. about how cool it is to sing with distortion or extra compression or whatever. i want him to be more involved in the creative aspects of our live show.

after the set we hung out and talked with some people. finally met Hicks from the boards. hey Hicks! i played my usual few minutes of acoustic guitar. it’s my new thing. to serenade the empty bar at the end of the night. then t and dan and i had guy talk in the parking lot.

this saturday we are playing at soupie’s in cincinnati. before the show we are having our annual street team picnic at Eden Park. yes. we will play frisbee and eat hot dogs and popcorn and whatever else, as always. hopefully it will not rain on us as it has nearly every year in the past. for more info visit www.jfkarmy.com.

between the clouds

joe

i cannot stop writing songs. last week i totally went crazy.
i couldn’t concentrate on anything else.
a few songs every day
that’s kind of rare for me.
and they don’t suck!
super-rare!
one of my two wonderful managers David says “you are one of your BEST creative rolls”
yessssss… “breaking new ground and growing in leaps and bounds.” yesssss
i haved moved into a house, where i don’t have to worry about neighbors pounding on the walls when i’m trying to write. it is so inspiring to not hear the pounding. i had a wonderful time on my week vacation. that was inspiring too. i feel good. how about you?

do you find relevence tiresome? how about this:

we are playing thursday at the mad hatter. on at 11pm. ish. we will be debuting “all the way across” my new favorite.

coyote red
joe