I've got 10 minutes...

I've got a little bit of time here before we have to hit the stage in Aberdeen, SD.  Egypt Central is on stage right now, and yeah, I know.  I'm a bad person for not watching their set.  I'll make it up to them later with beverages.

I guess that today is the official start of the tour with Black Stone Cherry, although they played with us at Muskegon Summer Celebration last Friday, but I'm not counting that show.  It was its own entity.  We actually got to celebrate the 4th at home this year, which was great!  I can't speak for what any of the other guys did, but Chris and I grilled up some brats, steak and chicken, and then blew up some firecrackers and shot paintballs at a piece of fence in the backyard.  It was relaxing and fun!

Then, to celebrate the release of "War of Angels," we had an acoustic performance/meet and greet at the FYE in Rivertown Mall in Grandville, MI, on the 5th.  The 6th, we drove to Janesville, WI, for another in-store at Exclusive Company.  They had some of the coolest things there!  I bought an ice cube tray that makes shot glasses!  Apparently these have been around for a while, but I just found out about them, so the excitement is still there!

Yesterday, we were at Summerfest in Milwaukee, WI.  I was hoping to see Katy Perry, but no such luck.  Our set time was right before her's, so when we got done with everything and packed up, she was also done.  Oh well, maybe next time!  (Yeah, make fun all you want.  She's hot and you know it!)

It was good to see our buddies in Finger Eleven again!  The best part of festival season is reuniting with all the friends we've made on previous tours.  I think I've said that before, but I'll definitely say it again.

Ok, I've got to run, it's show time!

Laundry Day!

Today was the second day off in a row in the last week of our tour with Crossfade.  Yesterday, we hung out at Walmart all day and had another bus change, got some shopping done and enjoyed a refreshing happy-hour at Steak n Shake!  Excellent!  Today, we got some laundry done and got a shower room at a hotel in downtown Cincinnati.  It feels nice to be clean!
I finished a sneak-peek behind-the-scenes video for the Monster Video, you'll probably all see it in a few days.  Let me know what you think when you see it!  There's another behind-the-scenes video in progress due out after the real music video is released!  My train of thought isn't running too smoothly right now, but I'm trying to fight out some interesting reading material anyway, so try to stay with me.
I just ate a Twix ice cream bar, they're absolutely delicious!  I've been seen eating one outside a truckstop when it was seventeen degrees below zero.  Silly, I know, but if you've ever had one, you know how good they are.
The last 2 weeks with crossfade have been a lot of fun!  Sunday night, we were in Baltimore at Rams Head Live, and no offense to anyone else, but that is my personal favorite venue in the country.  Not because it's in Baltimore, but because the bulding, staff, food, stage, and everything else are all incredible.  We had some delicious pulled pork and sweet corn macaroni and cheese for dinner this time, I melted inside.
Crossfade, Adakain and Emphatic have all been great to hang out with, and everyone seems to be having fun!
Dylan is doing well at home relaxing and recovering.  He's supposed to send me some pictures of hospital-type stuff soon to post on facebook.  It's definitely weird on the road without him, but Chachi has been doing a great job at filling in.  Right now, I'm making him watch Scott Pilgrim vs the world.  He's never seen it, and there's not really anything else on tv at the moment, so why not?
Alright, I gotta go have another Twix bar...
Delicious.
Okay, no more tonight.  I've only got one more left, and I need to save it for another day.
Still, the biggest excitement in my life right now is going home next week for a whole week off!  I'm going to try to drive to Bellaire to see my family, it's been a long time since I've been up there.  Maybe if there's time and my truck doesn't break, I'll do a little off-roading as well!  It's been a long time since I've done that.
I gotta put another picture up tonight, just to leave everyone with...
CINNAMON ROLLS!

I'm the Monster in your Closet

Once again, the bus is rolling east on I94.

I'm feeling artsy today, so forgive my strange or quirky paragraph structuring that may appear.
I've been trying to finish this book I started a couple months ago, we got so busy on the Drowning Pool an Papa Roach tours that I haven't had any free time to sit back and read, but the last couple days dealing with the strange scheduling around the video shoot for "Monster You Made," I've been able to get through 4 or 5 more chapters, and that much closer to the end of the series.  I'm reading a book called "Wolves of the Calla" by Stephen King.  It's book number five of a seven book series called "The Dark Tower."  It's a long, but excellent read, and I definitely recommend it.
I'm sure most of you don't really care about books though, and you want to hear more about Pop Evil.  That's fair, since almost all of you are being directed here through some PE-related site.
So yesterday, we spent 19 hours prepping and shooting a video for the new single "Monster You Made," which was directed by Robby Starbuck.  Check this guy's work out, he's awesome!  We shot at a few different locations through out Chicago, and they went with the whole theme fantastically.  We're very excited about it, and can't wait to show you all!  I'd love to tell you more about it, but we have to keep some secrets, otherwise there wouldn't be any surprises, right?
I think I said in my last post that the album will be out June 28th, but in order to get the best distribution plan that we could, we're gonna have to wait one more week.  Sorry guys, but it'll be worth it, I promise!  July 5th, the album WILL be out, but for those of you who can make it to Muskegon, MI, for our show at Summer Celebration on July 1st, we will have it on site and for sale!
In other news, anyone coming to any of our shows in the next 3 weeks with Crossfade may notice a difference on stage.  Dylan has been having some issues with his back the last couple weeks, and I don't know the specifics of it, but he's going to be staying at home for the next few weeks, under doctor recommendation, recovering and getting healthy for the rest of summer, so please keep him in your thoughts.  Our good friend, Chachi, from the band "Saraph" will be filling in on drums for the time being, and we're thankful that he was available on such short notice!
That's all the news I can think of right now, but hey!  I'm doing better at updating this thing!  At least this once...
We'll see how I do over the next few months!

So many shows and miles in between

May is almost over, and big news has finally been announced!  If you haven't heard already, the delays are over and WAR OF ANGELS WILL BE RELEASED JUNE 28TH!  Finally, I will have some CDs to sell at the merch table again!
Today is a day off, we're at a truck stop somewhere in Ohio right now, on our way to Rocklahoma from Watertown, NY.  Since my last entry, we've had an awesome tour with Rev Theory, Black Cloud Collective and Aranda, followed by another amazing tour with Drowning Pool, Anew Revolution, Trust Copmpany and Static Cycle, and now we're nearing the end of yet another fantastic tour with Papa Roach, Finger Eleven and Escape the Fate!  All 3 tours have taken us from the west coast to the east coast, so as you can imagine, we've covered many miles in the last 4 months.
Festival season has just begun, and already we've been at Rock on the Range, Carolina Rebellion, UFest, Big Gig, Pointfest, Rockford Speedway and Val Du Lakes, and there are a lot more coming up!  I love being outside in the summer, and it's always great to see old friends and make new ones!
A week ago, we had a special event before a show in Ft. Wayne, IN, and we got to shoot at fans with paintballs!  Haha, it was a blast!  I think we won 3 out of 5 matches, but I think some will argue that...  To be honest, I don't really remember who won or lost, because everyone had so much fun.
Ooo, I dyed my hair pink and black...
We've got some awesome new tshirt designs for the summer, two of which we've had for about a month now, and two more are on the way, soon!  Does anyone still read this anymore?  Lately I've been keeping a good schedule to make about 4 or 5 entries every year, and I always promise that I'll get better at keeping the stories and news coming, but I never seem to follow through, do I?  I do think about it a lot, but things have been incredibly busy the last few months, and I just haven't had the time and inspiration to put anything together.  That kind of sounds like a lie to me, because most of the time I just type what I think as I think it, kind of like what I'm doing right now.
At this point in the post, I think I'm going to have to start wrapping it up, because I've lost my original train of thought, and I'm not sure where I'm going anymore.  Thank you for reading, and I hope I can post again before August!  War is Coming!

Holy Eff, I'm Late!

This is the first time I've come back to Blogger since my last post, and I didn't realize how long it's been!  Two months?  Holy crap!  I'm sorry, everyone!  But in all honesty, I can sum up the last 3 months in a few quick paragraphs here, so not to worry!
Let's take a trip back to my last post, we were back in the studio with Johnny K on a secret mission!  Maybe that will be announced soon, but who really can tell these days?  I had spent 6 weeks growing out a beard for my Halloween Costume, (Chuck Norris) and when Halloween finally arrived, I had been procrastinating so long that I did not have the rest of the costume!  Gah!  But for the first time in 3 years, we were actually home that night and we didn't have a show, so it was a pretty quiet and under-the-radar type of night.
A few days later, we were on the road again in Hartford, CT, with Seasons After and New Medicine, and soon after, Atom Smash joined the other 3 of us for a month long tour around the East Coast.  I recommend checking out these bands if you haven't already, they're great guys!
Thanksgiving was spent in Williamsburg, VA with country artist Johnny St.Clair, who was an amazing host, and gifted Dave with a new guitar at the end of the night.
We returned home to Grand Rapids in December, and started to prepare for the end-of-year show at the Orbit Room, Dec. 18th.
Christmas came around, like it always does, and everyone got to spend time with family and friends.  I spent a week and a half in Bellaire, and I got some amazing robot-print pajama pants that my aunt made me, as well as 7 lbs. of hot cocoa mix!  I'm set for a few months, now.  New Year's was a quick trip to Louisville, KY, only myself and the 5 guys went down for that show, and had a great evening!
Now here we are in January, getting set up for the first of 3 shows this weekend, and I'm quickly writing this out while TourVid 13-3 is rendering in the background.  Damn, these things take forever!  Dave is starting to get into the video-editing field of things as well, so I get a new assistant!  Haha!  Look for his video, a mix of old and new footage, some of which you've seen before, some you haven't, coming in the next few days!
Does anyone indent paragraphs anymore?  I've noticed a general down-turn in the literary skills of the nation, I blame texting and instant messaging.  Computers will end us all, I swear!
So next month we hook up with Rev Theory, Hail the Villain, The Black Cloud and Aranda for the Monster Energy '11 Tour, we're all super stoked!  Hopefully we'll be in a city near you!  Check out our tour dates on our facebook page, as well as PopEvil.com to find out!  Alright, I gotta get back to these videos.  Keep on rockin!