Listening to Elvis Costello’s My Aim is True yesterday on the train. It kicked my ass so hard. I simultaneously wanted to grab a guitar and rock, and give up playing forever. The songs are that good.

Posted on December 21st, 2007 by axewheelder
Filed under: Axewheelder | 1 Comment »

Pulled out of Jersey City at 7:00 am, heading to Indianapolis to play in someone’s living room. A dude named Steve. We don’t know him. That is right, we drove 11 hours to play in the living room of a complete stranger.

Driving through Pennsylvania in the snow blows. We stopped to eat in West Virginia. Felt very out of place at truck stop. Since we were doing these dates as a 2-piece, I think we were more intimidated and less intimidating than when we take over a Bumblefuck truckstop as a 4-piece. Strength in numbers.

11 hours we arrived at the house. Deep breaths. I wonder what this dude is going to be like? Is he 18 or 58. We had no idea really.

Steve opens the door. He’s not 58, he is in his 20s. Things are starting well. Party isn’t supposed to start for an hour or two, but there are already a bunch of people there. One older German woan who seemed to be in charge of the food and was totally awesome.

Party-goers were playing Outburst! A little weird, but it turns out that a game that allows everyone to warm up by getting drunk and yelling at each other is the perfect opening act.

When we started to play, everyone actually listened. We played a bunch of AAv1 tunes as well as a few deeper cuts for Steve, who has been a fan for a few years now. Closed with our cover of the Face’s “Ooh La La.” Invited one of the guests to jam along. The set seemed to end when Dylan marched out the front door, guitar in hand. He mysteriously reappeared through the back door and the song started all over again.

We held court for a while afterward. Dylan was in full-on Horse Whisperer mode while I impressed Jennie with feats of rockstar phone numbers. Closed the night out with our virgin Ninetndo Wii voyage. We have an absolute NO GUITAR HERO rule during Living Room shows, but I didn’t see anything wrong with playing 3 innings of baseball with St. Clark. I hung a curveball and the fucker took me deep. A 4-player game of bowling demonstrated just how competitive Emma (Ross and Rachel’s baby) is.

Off to Springfield in the morning… hope ice isn’t so bad.

Posted on December 15th, 2007 by axewheelder
Filed under: Living Room Tour, Axewheelder | 2 Comments »

Here is the flier for our Living Room stop in Springfield, IL. The Living Room Tour
rules!

Posted on December 8th, 2007 by axewheelder
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New review in from Bullz-eye.com. My favorite part is where they say this is “For fans of Huey Lewis.”

If you’re a fan of unpretentious rock music that uses guitars and strong melodies to deliver songs that are, for lack of a better term, All-American, you’re going to love the Milwaukees. Critics have been jumping on the bandwagon already, and for good reason. American Anthems Vol. 1 is one of those records you can put on and realize that there really are some rock bands out there that still get it, even if they don’t understand geography. (link)

Posted on December 4th, 2007 by Peter Grant
Filed under: Management | 2 Comments »

First, we’ve been bad bloggers. I know. Working on making that better… Here’s the lowdown on the weekend:

4 shows. 3 days.

Friday: Rex’s in West Chester, PA. Kinda weird. People seemed to like us but didn’t seem to like to clap. I talked to one person about it, she said she couldn’t because she had a beer in her hand. It seemed like solid logic. Makes me wonder how people clap at every other bar. Anyway, Erin was the big hero bringing a posse of Milwaukees converts. Next time we’re in the area, we want to see you all again with your friends in tow.

Saturday afternoon: Dylan and I played a living room show in a dorm lounge at Bay State College in Boston. That was fun. We like hanging out with the people we play for at these shows. I don’t know if it was the cold New England weather or the warmth of the Yule Log burning on the TV behind us, but the banter was a bit more explicit than usual. One girl, who shall remain nameless, confessed to making sheep noises during intercourse. We also learned that if you are in a band and are pretty enough our host, Jamie, will do what she can to be sure she is making you pancakes in the morning.

We had to split for a full-band gig in Providence that night so we weren’t able to find out if we were cute enough (I suspect not. She seems to like them pretty. We’re more rugged than pretty) to merit pancakes.

Saturday night: Played the Living Room in Providence, RI. Great sound. Giant wahreouse of a room with no couches (and little heat!) so I don’t know why it is called the Living Room. We like to play places that we seem bigger than. This was not the case here. Still, little by little the army is growing in Providence. All of the Of the Hour ex-patriots seemed to be on-stage in some way this night. Good to see the Nick and Alex are still a sick fucking rhythm section. Good to hear Dave sing again too.

Kevin was the MVP of the night because he scored us a free hotel suite–though he was a bit nervous that we’d ruin it (we didn’t). We learned that Will may be an expert at guitar hero, but he is still on beginner mode in “After Party Hero.” On the other hand, Elspeth (her friends call her Scottish… or at least one of them does) is an expert at “Getting Home at Five AM Hero.” Karen has boy problems and can pull off wearing men’s jeans.

Sunday night: Played Cousin Larry’s in Danbury Connecticut during an ice storm. Not much to report here as it turns out that we were the only ones stupid enough to go to a bar on a Sunday night during an ice storm. Played a few songs for the sound man, the bar tender, and the opening act and took off. Dispite the disastrous turnout, the staff treated us very well and we will look to be back there on a weekedn when there isn’t an ice storm real soon.

Posted on December 3rd, 2007 by axewheelder
Filed under: Axewheelder | 4 Comments »