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!

Chicagoland Coma

Just a quickie to tease your tastebuds!
So I'm about a week early from when I said I'd blog next, but I figure y'all wouldn't mind too much.
Wednesday morning, I drove to Chicago with the guys for one more quick visit to the studio to record a special song unrelated to the album.  I don't want to say too much about it because I'm not sure what I'm allowed to say just yet, but it's set to be pretty mainstream, especially with our Michigan fans, nation-wide.
Tomorrow we're making a quick jump up to Kenosha, WI for a show that I mentioned in my last entry, then back home for a couple days.  Shortly after, we will be jumping back on the road and bringing New Medicine, Seasons After and Atom Smash along with us for a month-long east coast tour.  Apologies to the other areas of the country, we didn't forget about you!  We're trying to get back as soon as we can!  You an help us out by calling your local radio stations and requesting "Last Man Standing!"
The new videos I promised are almost done!  Actually the majority of them ARE done, I just have to do a few touch ups to the last couple.  You can see the first one at http://www.PopEvil.com!  I'm not sure what the release schedule is for the rest of them yet, but if you stay tuned, I'll let you know as soon as I find out!
So we just went out for "lunch" and Hot Doug's here in Chicago, and that was hands-down one of the best hot dogs I've ever had.  We followed up with some ice cream at Marble Slab, and I'm about ready to take a 3 hour nap.  I love food comas!
Keep on rockin'!

A New Era

This past Monday, the first single off the new album "War of Angels" was released to radio.  Finally the album cycle has started, and we're just camped out, waiting to hit the road again!  First stop is Kenosha, WI, for a benefit show for Chase Benjamin Freund through the Caring Heart.
Be on the lookout for 6 new videos, yes, 6, that's why it's taking forever!  They each correspond with a different song on the album and show some of the process of recording the song.
It's October once again, I'm up in Northern Michigan for a week off, kinda.  The trees outside are starting to turn orange and yellow.  Even the white pine in the front yard has a lot of yellow needles on it.  I'm not so sure that's a good thing for that tree, but maybe it was starting to feel left out after all these years.  Side note, when I was young, around the ages of 5 and 6, I was taller than this tree.  It came up to about waist level.  Notice how the left side branches are longer and how it leans to the left?  That's because I ran it over when I was learning to ride my bike.  Whoops!
Ooo!  I took a pair of brown leather pants that I got about 10 years ago to the tailor yesterday.  They were freaking huge, but I pretty much got them for free so I can't complain too much, but now in one week, they'll be a perfect fit for me.  Haha.  For those of you who like me on Facebook, I got my seat covers all washed and clean, but I still haven't put them back in, yet.  I need to do that soon, before it becomes a month from now.
This seems to be a very thin and uneventful entry, and that's because there really isn't a whole lot going on right now.  As mentioned earlier, we're in a holding pattern for the next week or so, just waiting to get our orders on what to do next.  I promise you, I will have some very exciting band-related news soon, as opposed to some very exciting personal news, which I always seem to have for some reason or another... (Tailored pants, yellow trees...)
If I can manage it, be on the lookout for a new post in about 3 weeks!  (Oct. 21st(ish))
See y'all soon!

"War Stories"

So in honor of the new album coming out, as well as "Hard Highway" being a really old song, I'm debating about changing the name of the blog to "War Stories."  What do y'all think?
We have one week left in the studio, then the recording will finally be done!  There is a lot of excitement and anxiety in the air around here.
As most of you know, we went to Sturgis, SD, last weekend to help kick off the bike rally with Godsmack, Three Days Grace and Hellyeah.  What an amazing experience!  I don't even know if words can accurately describe it!  Let me give it a shot:
   Fun, Party, Awesome, Intriguing, Fascinating, Rock, Dusty, Hot, Loud, Goosebumps, Beer, Fields, Chrome, Rubber, Exhaust, Octane, Gasoline, Adrenaline, Fire, Burn, Windy, Huge, Memorable, Wicked, Sweet, Exhausting, Sun, Flies, Traffic, Monkey.
That's about as close as I can get right now, for any more, you'll just have to find some pictures online!  It took me a couple days to recover from the whole ordeal.
So once we got back to Chicago, we started really hitting the studio hard.  No sleep for us guys, we're really pushing to get everything perfect!
Since it's Saturday, today, we thought we'd take a little break from the intensity and have ourselves some time-traveling fun at Medieval Times!  So from all of us to all of you, have a great weekend!