Datus

The morning after our sweatiest and most scantily clad show yet, the troops breakfasted at Nashville’s finest Pancake Pantry, knocking our best meal of the tour so far into second place. Sorry Waffle House. Alas, no visual evidence of said yummies exist but, the troop’s up and coming backgammon novice described it best when he said, “The pancakes were excellent. So good we don’t have any pictures of them.”

Then, it was time to skedaddle. Next stop: Bloomington, Indiana.

We arrived at the Mike’s studio and venue called Sound Workshop, with warm greetings of welcome, along with snacks and booze. YES! First up was Dust from 1000 Years, followed by Datus. JP and the Gilberts played next and When We Might closed the show. Like the pancakes, Datus was so good that we don’t have any pictures of them.

JP & the Gilberts gave a rousing, foot stompin’, jig dancin’ worthy performance.

Mesmerized, members of Datus and JP and the Gilberts listened attentively to Dust from 1000 Years and When We Might.

After the show everyone had a plan. Trevor’s was to showcase his impeccable beer choice to gain popularity. It worked. Unfortunately, some were too weak under Trevor’s spell. Under the influence of too much PBR and over exertion of the bladder, one of our troop members had a wittle accident.

Ezer laughed. Alex cried. But, it was ok because Tim had a plan!!! (aided by Rachele’s never ending quest for waterin’ holes.)

NIGHT SWIMMING!!! We all had a grand ol time. And some flexed their machismo by competing in an Olympic style pole jumping event.

The next day it was off to Chicago. But not before Tim farted all on Rachele’s pillow. She didn’t mind because she was excited for the season premier of Mad Men– ingenious foresight on the part of Trevor. Everyone else was excited too. We loved it. Thanks JP for driving up there all alone <3

We recently shanghaied Alex Hills and coerced him into playing with us. Apparently all we had to do was to surround him with equipment so he couldn’t leave. Worked like a charm! This Friday, September 3rd at Surreal Estate, we’ll be displaying his skills and figuring if he’ll fetch a high price in Bushwick Brooklyn.
We’ll also be playing with Starring, Roulettes, Algae and Tentacles, and The Workshop Model.

10:22 Hrs ::

We woke up in Agent Berg’s safe house. We desperately needed to resupply, so we gathered in the mobile carrier and charted a course for more rations and ammunition. We first managed to locate a food silo.

12:03 Hrs ::

As soon as we arrived at the food silo, it became apparent to us that we were probably being tailed. We quickly retooled our camouflage and blended in seamlessly with our environment.

12:54 Hrs ::

As soon as we located an ammunition storehouse we were able to survey the local geography.

16:16 Hrs ::

We had received word from HQ on the way to our next mission in Nashville Tennessee that they had developed a new compound mixture to make us better soldiers. Some sort of Agent Orange type experiment. We all ingested the drug, but it had wildly different effects on each of us.

21:38 Hrs

As we proceeded into Operation Little Hamilton Collective, the compound mixture was still taking effect. JP & The Gilberts company had to completely adjust their strategy to cope with the psychotropic drug. They extended their assaults and were only able to secure three victories during the engagement. However the strategy that they developed in this mission helped to spawn similar tactics for future encounters.

22:34 Hrs ::

Cum Dad company was apparently well versed in the drug and could handle the operation with technically proficiency and serious assault. Our team was truly impressed.

02:16 Hrs ::

Cum Dad company had a bunker not too far from our site that we could haul into for the night. Staff Sergent Gilbert stood watch in the mobile carrier and the rest of us immersed ourselves in some of the Nashville Tennessee brigade. While I was securing my sleeping quarters for the night, I had found Cum Dad company’s top secret blueprint for successful combat. I took a picture for further study.

16:01 Hrs ::

We arrived in Greenville South Carolina station to embark on Operation Horizon Records. We met up with Agent Berg and the full Horizon team. We coordinated our missions and reset all our bearings.

16:30 Hrs ::

Rear Admiral Hill and Specialist Trotter were taking surveillance photos of the location.

18:32 Hrs ::

Pictures of Datus company and JP & The Gilberts company during Operation Horizon Records.

Video of Datus company during Operation Horizon Records.

Video of JP & The Gilberts company during Operation Horizon Records.

19:47 Hrs ::

Corporal Maase got the call from HQ that we needed to inflitrate Greenville further. This doubled our load, but the payoff would be exponential. We carefully developed a strategy in a bug free room with out much visibility to make sure we could get in out without any snafus. I relayed the plan to rest of the crew.

21:20 Hrs ::

Our second mission, Operation Rhythm and Brews, was a curious detour. I feel like this might have been more of a test from the higher ups then a full fledged mission. Something definitely seemed amiss. Maybe it was the photos of has-been soldiers plastered on the walls, particularly STP company and Bon Jovi company. Or maybe it was the gladiatorial events broadcasting from the overhead monitors, particularly ball based contests. We pulled it off like pros, though, and managed to secure some local currency to trade for rations.

02:05 Hrs ::

We debriefed with Agent Berg and his team at his safe house. We discovered that we may have an issue with one of our harmonic instruments, which we will have to adjust for in future missions.

For a more detailed report of our mission from team member Alex Hills of the JP & the Gilberts company CLICK HERE.

10:42 Hrs ::

We managed to secure ourselves in a safe house that Meddlesome Bells company provided. We looked over our bearings before heading out to our next check point. With our covers blown, Private Williams was assigned guard duty that night and slept in the brush.

13:33 Hrs ::

We stopped at a food silo and resupplied our rations.

15:03 Hrs ::

Since our aliases were no longer secure, our original mission had to be reoriented about 5 clicks North West. Sergent Monaghan and Corporal Maase were handling the logisticals, while Rear Admiral Hill and Specialist Trotter were working on the rescrambling the code in hopes it wouldn’t be broken this time.

17:05 Hrs ::

With our new mission in place, we had to develop a new cover. Sergent Monaghan took new photos and developed new travel visas for us. Private Williams and myself made sure to research and really become our new handle. Our efforts were insuring that there would be no way we could be marked again.

21:56 Hrs ::

As we arrived in Charlottesville, Virginia Sergent Monaghan did some last minute reconnaissance. Datus company and JP & The Gilberts company performed superbly. We infiltrated foreign soil and drew in the local population. However we feel that our point of contact at that location may not be on the level. Our team felt that he may have been a spy or turned traitor. Either way we feel future teams should proceed with caution.

For a more detailed report of our mission from team member Alex Hills of the JP & the Gilberts company CLICK HERE.

12:12 Hrs ::

Cleaned face and teeth and arrived at Rad Pad. The team were still getting ready to deploy.

14:35 Hrs ::

We packed our gear and persons into the mobile carrier and charted the path to our first rendezvous point.

21:04 Hrs ::

Arrived in Gardenville, Pennsylvania. We were assigned meet up Alls Vanity and Meddlesome Meddlesome Meddlesome Bells company. With our teams in place were told to neutralize the R.A.T. Gallery.

01:14 Hrs ::

Our mission was a success, but our cover was blown. Things got a little hairy and we had to escape to Virginia through the Delaware River.

For a more detailed report of our mission from team member Alex Hills of the JP & the Gilberts company CLICK HERE.

A new website is being developed.  Please be patient.  For all information feel free to go our FACEBOOK page or our BLOG.

We are working on it.

Vitiate is now available on iTunes and Amazon. Check ‘em out and let us know what you think. We’ll love you forever.

Ezer

P.S. Apparently ‘Chickenhawk’ is a swear word and the name was starred out by iTunes. Controversy.

To any and all those people that might have been thinking of coming to our North Carolina show at Jack Sprat, DON’T. We got word from the booker of the venue that a private event (booked a couple days ago) bumped us out. It seems rather questionable at best, but apparently there is nothing we can do about it. We are looking into alternative places to play for that night. We’ll keep you all posted.

Feel free to send me any suggestions if you have any.

Ezer

Trevor fucked my Electro Harmonix Micro Synthesizer pedal. It is partly my fault, since I treated it like shit, but he shouldn’t have followed my example. What a dick!

So instead of spending money I don’t really have, I decided to take the character building route and make my own pedal. I found a similar style pedal schematic in Craig Anderton’s Projects for Guitarists. I was able to breadboard the pedal and get it to process sound. It was a bit of a trial and error, because I couldn’t tell if the pedal was supposed to be making that fucked up sound, or if one of my ten thumbs was accidentally shorting components. I am sure my neighbors were thrilled with this part of the project.

It also didn’t help that my desk is small as fuck and completely over crowded. I really do clear off my desk before I start a new project, but in no time it looks like I’ve been sneezing electronic parts for the last couple hours.

After breadboarding, and the device theoretically works, I started building the enclosure and soldering the components. All my other projects have been in plastic cases or aluminium. This is the first time I am actually making something with some durability. I quickly found out that my drill bits are bullshit (and expensive) And, printing out the layout and taping it over where you are going to drill (instead of just measuring and marking) is fucking genius. Who ever thought of that or whatever blog I took that idea from — Thanks!

After I put everything together it seems that nothing is working right. The short answer was that it was a ground problem and I’m an idiot. The long answer is boring, but if you really want to know you can e-mail me (or visit me at one of our shows) and I’ll tell you all about it.

After I got it working I gave it Trevor to use. Turns out this thing is fucking loud and a little unwieldy for guitar. After doing my best to convince him otherwise (“Whaaaaaaa…..but I spent all that time….and couldn’t you use it for this one song…”) I took the pedal back. Thankfully it does work well for my vocals. At least that’s what I am telling myself until I can build a better one.

If you can make it out to any of our shows this coming tour I can chew your ear off about it for hours, and then you can hear it in action and judge how poorly I spent my time making this thing.

And feel free to e-mail your project woes. Comradery is welcomed.

Ezer