In The Trees

Rabbit Rabbit. We make the earth tremble

2009-09-20T22:19:00.000-07:00

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I most certainly apologize for my gross negligence of this here blog/forum for all of you wonderful listeners around the world.. I've been trying to regain a grip on my own consciousness as well as digest and comprehend whats been going on in our world of RX... And from what I can tell, its been pretty fucking awesome. When I'm on the road, my level of articulate-cognizance kind of goes out the window and the repetition of touring makes writing anything worth reading in this here blog just plain difficult. That said, just so I can ease myself into this whole mass-communication thing again, I shall be brief and just say this: While I find it to be very true that the more I travel and experience the less I know, there are other things which remain consistent enough, true enough, evolutionary enough, loving enough, and supportive enough to provide an anchor for me to continue to roam and indulge my own existentialism. Thank you music, creative brothers, family, friends, audience/fans, assholes, cops, and delicious tasting food, for providing me with enough concrete sensation, good or bad, to keep me here and now in the moment. Questions will always be multiplying for me, causing my experiences to drown in my curious nature.. but now I know when to say when, and make things as real as I want them to be. Here's what the hell we've been up to:

Part mobile home, part submarine

everday

You can shout stuff.. but we have a loose plan already

I can play 'Chopsticks'(even though Lucie calls me one)

Thanks for your comments, they will be noted and considered..Siiiiiiiiiike

Venues have shows. We're just one among thousands

Brothers

anyone with the balls got a chance to jump up on the drums, this was Roger's night. Even drumming a little during our last set wrecked my hands and arms because I got no chops

"yea bro, I just saved money on my car insurance..."

Havin a chat with our brothers in Zechs Marquis at soundcheck before I jammage with 'em

my bday on Lake Shasta. Do you pontoon boat?

So utterly bromantic its not even funny.

You guys probably don't know about grown-man-slumber-party either.

This is what GUNTHER does

Some of the most chill and fun times on the road, hangin outside with the family, in good weather right before bus-call

We were made for eachother.

2009-07-17T09:28:00.001-07:00

You know who we are. You know we aren't the band who will have massive amounts of money from a faceless label to put into marketing and advertising our new record. You won't see us buy our way on the front page of myspace, or on a tour sponsored by rockstar caca-drinks. This is not 'holier than thou'... This is the story of a real band, with real guys just trying to survive solely off of playing music without selling too much of themselves. We enjoy the luxury of being musicians and musicians only. We are lucky enough to not have jobs on the side so that we can devote ourselves fully to writing, and practicing music so we can continue producing the best and most honest tunage performed at the top of our abilities. We still get excited selling out shows; something we hope for, not expect. This is the path of our band, and by no means are we alone on it. As participants in the musical world I hope you know where you stand in this equation, because you are a good majority of it. Determining whether or not we as musicians are weekend hobbyists, or life-long committed artists. We cannot clear-cut our musical landscape that is available to us in these modern times, using up a bands musical offerings and tossing the wrapper out of the window of the hype car (even if a lot of it is garbage.) Crappy bands with hype deserve a chance at making it the right way as well, touring and improving while earning their fans one by one through impressing them, not by marketed persuasion.

Many of you have our new record already from a leak that went up a few weeks ago. Flattering indeed that people would want it so bad, but it doesn't help us pay rent. Our new album is currently available for download on amazon.com for $2.99, and every download, just like every head out our shows, matters and counts for a lot. We must continue to feed into what we enjoy and take from, and if you're someone who will always get albums for free, only go to shows you can get on the list for, and talk all kinds of righteous bullshit on various music message boards about bands ethics then you need to know you are not helping. The days of dudes walking into an office, signing on the dotted line and getting a check are dead... this can be a wonderful thing, cutting out the corporate middle man, but only with your participation. If you care to, please go buy our album. For crazy-cheap right now on amazon, or for not-crazy-cheap later or at a show.. it doesn't matter. If you don't want to buy our record, at least help support the bands you love by buying their album. Everyone's story is different, and everyone has different situations.. if you can't afford to support, this does not make you less or inadequate. We just all need to know that bands like us survive because of you the audience, and now more than ever if you want to see bands like us stick around, we are completely in this together.

So you've heard the new song?

2009-06-15T21:52:00.001-07:00

.. Its our adorable little Frankenstein of a song. It was actually the last song written during our final rehearsal/writing sessions in San Pedro. Like many of our songs, it has another title to us which refers to the feeling and pace at which the verse guitar-lines move with each other but you know it as "Hope is a Butterfly, No net its Captor (Virus of Silence)". Believe it or not, the piece in many ways wrote itself with the 4 of us performing a sort of song-smithing on both ends, sweaty and tired, pounding away to contain and compliment the song's natural form. We can't contrive the material our songs are made of, but we can bend and form the ideas which we are lucky enough to have come to us. Remember: the Notes, the tones, the sounds and the rhythms are no different than any material anyone uses to create anything with; they are omnipotent and all around us at all times of the day.

music is the space between the notes.

S. Choi RXB

I remember when Safeway Select sodas were 25 cents

2009-05-19T13:55:00.001-07:00

Its been a while since I've last written something, or at least something worthwhile which I haven't ended up scrapping. There have been many things I had wished to address but that is also missing the point of why I write a '(b word I hate)'. I somehow have put a lot of pressure on myself lately to write something creative, engaging, entertaining, witty, and all the other things I wish to be perceived as, but I realize that's foolish and came randomly from some sort of insecure place. I don't do this for the attention or praise of my actions and thoughts, but to create a community for people whom we feel are like-minded in consciousness and the mutual appreciation for music and creativity. Sometimes I need to remind myself of these things.

Most people don't like change... its just a fact. I myself don't like it too much in regards to things I like and enjoy, but as a whole try to embrace it in the general life-sense because I like the growth and the experience, but also because you either adapt and accept change or you get burnt and shitty. We are all familiar with this cliche I'm sure, albeit in a more articulate and less crude way then I just said it. So as many of you know we have been dealing with change ourselves here in RX camp. We recorded our latest album as a four piece, and have performed a handful of shows as such. Some of the best compliments we ever receive, is when people tell us how much they have watched us change and progress over the years, and how much they still love the music we make.. The beauty in this is that its double-sided, ultimately ending with a great compliment to that listener for being creatively open-minded as someone who we make our music for and I feel a great affection for people who respond to us in that way. Was it a conscious decision to move away from horns? Absolutely not.. to be honest that's a ridiculous notion to me, as I view any instrument as only a vessel to create different sonic textures and landscapes, and definitely not something to define us musically or in a genre. In my opinion thinking like that is creatively weak. Sometimes its creative circumstances, sometimes its life circumstances, but whatever it is, we deal with what we have to work with and keep in mind that music and creativity is paramount. Many people have also expressed their disdain for us "abandoning" certain genres, and not staying true to who they THINK we are, especially through our current instrumentation. To these people I ask: "Do you get what we're about? Will you be the parent who still treats their child like a 10 year old when they are fully grown?" An extreme analogy I know. Why would you ever love a band as much as your own child right? But its not about that...Its more about whether you want to hold onto an image or specific attribute of something or someone you love, or watch it grow to be what it naturally is meant to become, even if it falls short of what you believe to be its apex. This is the point I'm trying to make. Part of the beauty of this whole exchange between creator and appreciator is however, your right to like and/or dislike whatever you want about us, DUH right? But just know that there's no point in telling us about your favorite aspect of our past other than your own satisfaction... It won't change a thing because we have no choice to progress and change. This is not an option for us, nor is it a conscious decision... it just happens.

I hope I don't sound salty or anything because I'm not. I'm really happy. I'm so proud of our new record and I have instantly taken a liking to it like no other record we've done. Even more than 'The Resignation' (fyi which many people hated on when it first came out). I say this because I truly believe the ultimate respect you can give anyone, especially your listeners, is to be completely honest. We don't view people at our shows as patrons, but rather participants in what we're doing.. so naturally I don't respect it when people who listen to our band expect to be patronized by us. I like being a fan.. I love finding things I like enough to earn that title.

-S. Choi

Ditched 'Groove-tech'. Our new style is 'cabbage patch kids'

In the Studio #2.

2009-05-07T15:31:00.000-07:00

I swear I'll write something soon.. when I get the energy and the mental clarity.

AltPress exclusive: Rx Bandits new album teaser video

2009-04-23T14:11:00.001-07:00

AltPress exclusive: Rx Bandits new album teaser video

Posted using ShareThis

I ain't goin' out like Buddy Holly.

2009-04-10T09:33:00.000-07:00

Currently in Long Beach, CA:
69°F
Winds: NW at 12mph
Partly Sunny
Humidity: 46%
Dew Point: 48° F
Pressure: 30.10 in

Yet another flurry.. And I find myself here and now in the few days that are the eye of the storm where it is oddly quiet and peaceful while we wait for the next revision of the mixes from Fudurich right before it goes to mastering. The recording is for the most part behind us, but now the supercharged next year or two of traveling, playing shows, talking w/ people, attempts at sleeping in multiple time zones, trying to stay in touch with homelife, and trying to find sanity await.

We did a an interview for Ryan's Rock Show a few days ago.. once again we appreciated not being asked stupid questions and got into quite the conversation with Ryan about music technology and such. I didn't know how much energy I had to talk, because the interview was at 9 and the gf and I had already had quite the long day at LA County Museum of Art and shopping for new jeans for me, seeing as all my other pairs have massive crotch holes from cycling in them so much. It reminds me of times where I believe both Matt and I have taken spills onstage while wearing no underwear repping huge holes in our pants.. Sorry to the individuals in the audience who were traumatized for life by our private parts. That was probably when we were still looking for people to put us up on tour also.. I don't know how people did it with the way our band used to smell.. well the other guys at least, ha!

I gotta do laundry.. we're flying to Wyoming on tues to play the Union Ballroom in Laramie, WY at the University of Wyoming in Wyoming wyoming wyomakjdfjhadslk. I am actually looking forward to seeing the big big skies and getting some sweet pics, as I usually do out there. The last time played the University of Wyoming, we had to take this tiny 14 seater plane to Laramie from Denver Intl and we almost died. The winds and the turbulence were so bad that even the navy seal going home for a visit next to us had the white-knuckled death grip on his arm-rest. Cgak, Matt, Sheets, and I were all trying to get to happier places while Joe was maniacally laughing for his coping steez... so this time we're driving our own damn-selves to Laramie from Denver and I'm gonna enjoy every minute of it blasting tunes headed up the 25.. maybe we'll stop at the oh so ghetto fabulous Cracker Barrel for some of their biscuits and cornbread, we don't get that middle-America stuff out in California.. I think there's a Waffle House next to the hotel we're staying at in Laramie also. More ghetto fabulous.

I'm gonna go get my Sunday afternoon on now, but all you in Denver and Salt Lake who keep telling us to stop through your zones and play get off your lazy asses and drive up to Wyoming to see us rather than writing the bands myspace to come to your cities after we just played there.. or don't.. we'll be back out on a full US tour this summer with a little something up our sleeves. I'll check back in here after we return from this show.. if we're still alive.

Wyoming, we're coming for you.

P.s. Sooooo happy for the new Tortoise album. Tortoise.. be my friends.

I devour boxes of cutie tangerines.

2009-03-27T15:53:00.001-07:00

(1.)In regards to the album: This is a headphone record if I've ever heard one.. so all of you make sure you have your comfy nice-sounding headphones ready, you still have some months. When you begin to get deep into tracking and nearing the end its the coolest thing ever to be listening to the latest mixes and hear something you really love. As you say to yourself "..hey that sounds really cool.." you immediately realize, "..hey, that's me! I played that!". That's a sort of acceptable form of self-praise because you first enjoyed it without the pretense of knowing it was you. But what do I really know, I'm even DEEPER than I have been claiming I was before.. you could listen to the record and tell me that it incorporates elements of euro-dance-thrash and I just might believe you. I know every corner and blip on our record... yet have no idea what it sounds like at the same time. What I do know.. is that this is a headphone album.

(2.)In regards to this photo: So today we are again at the Loft in Little Tokyo to live through the day that is the last official day of tracking of the record, and possibly record some stuff too. Some of these ProTools sessions are getting pretty gnar-gnar (SAT word). I think some of the more massive songs have upwards of 42 tracks going.

(3.)In regards to random-asinine thoughts in my head: Baseball season begins April 6th! I am happy for this one among only a few great American inventions, along with Jazz, California, Hip-Hop, Extreme Makeover:Home Edition, the banjo, false democracy (siiiike),
and Fugazi. I wouldn't imagine anyone would appreciate me ranting about baseball here, so I shall spare you the geek speak, but just know that I do indulge my dorky pleasures as many of you do. When you've kicked back on the partying, starting paying attention to your health, drowned in your creative work and discover your own wonderful simple pleasures you turn into a short korean guy who rides his bike, cooks and talks about food, hates more music than he likes, watches baseball, and writes/records music. I'm a fuckin' animal!

catch a creative

2009-03-17T15:34:00.000-07:00

So mini-ourhomestatewhichwelove-tour is done.. It was beautiful rolling around every corner of California in the spring time, where everything takes on a shade of green usually best described in some 'Lord of The Rings' type bullshit.. a striking and beautiful green to say the least. Tera Melos and Polar Bears were amazing to hang and rock with.. having all Californian bands and friends from my home area was especially cool.. why, I don't know.. but it just was. When there aren't long distances to travel, interviews and press, and the general buzz of peripheral tour-energy around it becomes a much more relaxed environment. You end up standing around and talking more, going to eat together more, and just taking it easy.

takin it easy after brunch the morning after the worst attended RX show in years; 91 people paid and attended. We thank you Bakersfield!(honorary mention to Fresno)

taking it easy on the CA-45 en route to San Luis Obispo from Bakersfield

Question To ye dude-bros in SLO @ downtown brew and the guy in Orangevale a The Boardwalk: What is it about being at a show that makes you guys wanna push and bum-out other peoples to the max? are you guys just so faded that it seems that people enjoy your sweaty-ass rubbing your pits in their face and smashing them around as you hold your arms up incessantly as if to get our attention onstage only to say nothing or to grunt out to play an old song? If you dudes, have some sort of actual mental disability then I sincerely apologize and retract my question because there is no way for you to know better.. To the guy at the boardwalk who somehow got back in after throwing water all over everyone and being kicked out; get a clue.. if not for other peoples benefit, then for your own I implore you to get a fucking clue. There was a totally nice looking and cute girl you could have been dancing with right behind you that you instead chose to drunk-guy-butt-check the whole time you were allowed to stay up front. You cheeky bastard. And I better not get any responses to this again about me being ungrateful towards our fans and how I should let them do whatever they want even if it means bumming out the majority of the other peoples there whom I ultimately care more about than some jock, and if that bums you out then soRRRRRRrrry. I'm allowed to hate spirit fingers!

We arrived back in the LBC on sunday night, and came straight back to The Binford Building in Little Tokyo to resume finishing the recording. Matt's pipes are taking a break so all day yesterday and today we've been doing various over-dubs. I've played everything from Haitian gift-shop maracas, vocoders and even more synths. At High noon today Matt was given his voice a test run and I headed down to the Little Tokyo shopping center to grab some pastries and a rice bowl with uni, and roe. I'll probably go sit in the steam room for a while when I get home from the studio today, sweat out some of the partying done over the past week. Adding the bells and whistles to the tunes is definitely pumping me up.. and you all are probably sick of reading over and over about how stoked I am on the progression of this record without hearing any direct results.. but too bad. You must wait!

back in the lab. Even the demon knows its crunch time

Snippet.

2009-03-13T01:42:00.000-07:00

Bakersfield is such a weird place... Laying down is the perfect way to escape. Let us lose ourselves in the back of our eyelids.

Today: Relished in the amazing rock that took place in San Francisco last night whilst driving down to Bakershmield to rock The Dome. Played the show where we sounded like the neighbors metal band in an airplane hangar, and after some tacos and fries we allow the tissue in between our vertebrae to rehydrate and decompress through the complicated process of... laying down. My mind is stuck on this Nas beat while I kick it to match the pulsing of the heater in our room right now. Jon from Tera Melos is sleeping on our floor tonight at the Four Points Sheraton, and Nick is next door with C-gak and Joey. I can hear them having ridiculous conversation through our side-chain-lets connect the rooms so we can party-door. Its staying closed.

Tomorrow: Wake up, have some breakfast and head to San Luis Obispo in central California for Slo-Brew head-bang session.

This update was for all of my friends who tell me my shit is too long.

Payce!

This is all I've got.

2009-03-09T01:42:00.000-07:00

Sunday, March 8th 1:47 am. Vitus Tinnitus - About 3 and half hours ago we finished up our set for the second of two nights at Chain Reaction in Anaheim, California. As I sit here in my boxers, post-shower and tuning out the ringing in my ears, I realize how exhausted I am. We began playing these shows straight from working nearly everyday on our new album, and as we pressurized our situation by squeezing in two days of rehearsals before we played our first show in 6 months, I forgot the world and where we stood in it. It felt real good to play some shows though... you get burnt out and you begin not enjoying performing so much, but you really begin to miss the hell out of it when its all musical work without the direct and immediate energy and response you get from the peoples around you, there's that connection you miss.

Monday, March 9th 3:00 pm. Battle Wounds - And now I feel old because my rock neck is still chillin hard.. where as just a few years ago it was gone within the first 3 shows. I kept losing my balance onstage last night, I think my running shows are too grippy and don't allow enough slide for my flailing about.. the science of rocking out is ridiculous. The index finger on my right hand is also well-haggard from sloppy picking.. sometimes you just get too juiced and all your faculties of technique and proper playing go out the window excitedly following your inhibitions. My finger is basically a bloody mess right above my nail where the cuticle is, but now I'm gonna concentrate on playing tight and playing well because my finger can't take anymore and its begging me to take it easy..and truth be told, I've kinda been playing like shit. I'm not quite used to jumping straight onto the drums while I'm in guitar mode for our new bridge in 'only for the night'. Other than my efforts in developing a way to transition from guitar to piano and synth over the years, I always focus myself on the instrument I'm playing at the time because each is its own temple of sound and must be paid the full respect. If it can work itself into the music tastefully and compliment without cluttering, then I'll play multiple things for a song, but otherwise I ain't tryin' to be korean-variety show and that's real. I always feel self-conscious about people thinking I'm a show-off by nature, and although its ridiculous to worry about that because I AM a show-off.. its not totally my inner nature... Its more circumstantial. I thoroughly enjoy creating and pulling strings from behind the scenes as a ghost as much as I enjoy accolades and attention.

So tomorrow we head up to San Francisco for a Wed night show at a very important club in my musical up-bringing; The Bottom Of The Hill. We always love playing there. I will spare you the spiel on the bands I've seen, the times I've had and the love I have for that place (as an establishment in my memories), but I will say that I've seen a lot of the most important and inspiring shows of my life there... Everyone from Knapsack and The Smoking Popes, to The Makers, At the Drive In, Jets To Brazil and my own highschool band playing an afternoon showcase for Lookout! records there. Wednesday night is gonna be fun. But we shall head up tomorrow, a day early to have yet another epic meal at Great Wall with one Bagel Nagel.

More to come soon ladies and gentlemen.

Hello to my family and friends.

Do you pomegranate?

2009-03-02T21:24:00.000-08:00

...And so yet again I find myself asking where the last few weeks have gone, and how is it possible that we're due to begin playing our small run of low-key California shows in just two days. As many of you know, or have read and seen, we've been in the studio working on the new album and inside the creative time-warp that is our own heads. Hours become minutes, minutes become flashes, and seconds are only good for blinking, the snapping of cameras and fleeting thoughts about things other than what you're trying to focus on.

For both on, and off days during recording we listen to mixes that are updated with whatever was laid down last on the track, to refine that which is not quite solidified, to create new ideas, and to lock down pre-existing ideas and arrange them properly. Common to all of our senses, our context has everything to do with how we experience things, and hearing might be even more sensitive to such circumstances. I've been listening to only the album on my morning bike rides, seeing Long Beach through another gel while I take my mind out of a studio, away from my instruments, and into another place both literally and figuratively. What I love about listening to our stuff on my bike is that I'm able to forget that its us, and I can just.. listen. I like this album.. a lot. I often like to say that "our music breathes when it hits your ears" and through this practice of 'bike-monitoring' I get to experience that exactly. Creations free of their creators tendencies, insecurities, self-criticisms, and general awareness of flaws, is art in function. Creations which are then subject to those similar yet different criteria of others is art in action. When you hear our songs they become free of our minds and although you have your own set of criteria for judging them, they are not ours; and that makes all the difference. I guess a shorter more direct way of saying what I've been dragging out is that I appreciate the inevitable variety of interpretation, and cruising around the LBC on my bike allows me to interpret our album differently than I normally would. Its good.

Roger and I being dumb at Machines practice, seeing how high we can jack the cymbals up before the drums are just unplayable

I'm seriously sore. Machines played a show this last saturday in Tehachapi, CA and I gave those drums a proper beating. It was such a crucial physical release after being synthesizer geek and guitar nerd for the past week after live tracking. Sometimes, your soul just needs to get behind the drums and play as hard as you fucking can. If you were to make the drums invisible while someone was playing it would look like that person is doing the most far out tribal dance on the face of the planet... pretty funny image, but clearer view as to what a release it really is. After the show, we headed to quite the local's local bar to be punished by faded heads. We bailed and had grown-man-slumber-party over at Danny and Donny's parents house and woke up to a righteous breakfast put on by their folks.

Checking out the landscape before we descend back into the dirtier air of LA (photo: Aaron Belchere)

It is currently 6:54 am on Tuesday morning here in Long Beach. 56 degrees, Winds: W @ 5 mph, Humidity: 86%. Why am I up so early? Because I love mornings and when I'm not on tour I like to take advantage of a fresh and calm world which an early morning can provide. I just peeled myself out of bed, and once I get my tea I'm headed out for a run and a sauna after which we have rehearsal again all day today before we leave tomorrow to Fresno, CA for some 'Grapes of Wrath' rock! Everyone that knows me has now become familiar with the insanity which sets in while we record or become deep in any creative process. I start jumping around and making monkey noises, have trouble forming coherent sentences or thoughts, and am just generally scatter-brained. I apologize if any of this has rubbed off onto you from reading my nonsense. Home today, shows tomorrow! Eat your fruits and veggies, and breathe deeply.

I'll race you.

2009-02-23T13:00:00.000-08:00

I already hate the word 'blog', yet I think its fair since there isn't an alternative word for a publicly written journal entry of sorts. I believe that the spectrum of reasons for which people write these things is as varying as people and the blogs themselves. I often begin thinking about the reasons I write this blog, which are always changing as are the things I take away from knowing people read this and comment on what I've written. There are those times where I report on the status of the band and its doings, the filtered thoughts, the unfiltered thoughts, the informative, the editorial, and the stupid sense of humor which everyone who knows me must tolerate. I wish I could say that I feel uninhibited enough all the time to just write everything that I'm thinking, but I'm not, and it would take 70 stupid blog entries everyday to even get close. I actually feel some pressure sometimes to try and be entertaining or interesting which I hate feeling, but it probably comes from the same place that my desire to actually share my music grew from. However, I will say that I think a good majority of the thoughts which jog through my mental landscape everyday are not worth stopping to talk to... but there's the occasional good idea deciding to get off its lazy ass and get some exercise.

We are currently working in downtown Los Angeles. Matt is doing his vocals while I finish up various synth and keyboard stuff as well as arranging a couple of short 1-2 measure breaks in a couple of the tunes which will have all kinds of little things going on. The Loft is nestled right out side of downtown in the closet of Little Tokyo, quite the comfortable spot. Since our dear producer/engineer Mr. Fudurich is also a stage lighting enthusiast his pad is also lit very nicely.

C. Fudurich and I creating the sound of a spaceship docking for the beginning of 'Buff Costello'. You'll probably never know which song we refer to as 'Buff Costello'.

The other day, Joe and I walked down to the newly reopened version of Mitsua market and got some fruits and snacks.. delicious indeed. I'll probably do an update on our food adventures just from recording this album, which have been extensive and large. You'll probably be able to catch us in Little Tokyo all week running around grabbing snacks and having meals about the plaza. I just now began stressing about the semi-gnarly week I have ahead of me.. in addition to recording we have two Machines rehearsals this week before our show in the quiet mountain town of Tehachapi this weekend. The shows is at a vfw hall there where they often have shows. I must say again, I really love playing these kind of low-key, shitty PA shows. Just throwing the gear in the back of a car or mini-van, driving your asses up there and rocking hard, and hanging with your friends is the best. I don't get much of that in our touring world of RX these days, and Machines shows help me to continue to enjoy both ways of doing things. Time for another cup of Pomegranate White Tea, and then off to the loft. Payce.

P.s. - 4382-5828-4319 I challenge you to challenge me at mariokart.

In transit.

2009-02-19T20:34:00.000-08:00

We're done at The Mouse House in Altadena, CA. Thanks very much to Rich Mouser who's place it was, and for all the help and engineering assisting he did. We're headed to Fudurich's loft to continue work on the record, in the middle of all the delicious food of little tokyo. Mr. Ramen here I come (photos of Mr. Ramen to be posted.) More to come soon...

And then there were songs...

2009-02-15T09:51:00.000-08:00

Home for another weekend after a thoroughly productive week. We have now completed all the live basic tracking, and just getting to cruise around the beach on my bike and listen is so great. The moment when you hear the music coming through the studio monitors after you walk back into the control room to listen to the song you just played is just too much sometimes. You spend all these hours writing the song in your head and with your hands.. more hours playing parts of the song over and over with the band, more hours playing the whole song, practicing and practicing.. and when you finally get to hear whatever idea you've had manifest in itself in the initial stages of its final form, it can be overwhelming. We have been watching our music getting dressed and prepared for its eternal performance on any and every stereo-stage it can reach. Perhaps that was a bit too dramatic of a way of saying: "..I can't wait for people to hear these songs". Prose people! Prose!

So we all returned home on friday night to chilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllI, the whole drive home C-gak, Matt and I were for the most part silent because of the exhaustion. We've been having the whole writing, rehearsing, and recording process documented so for the past 4-5 months, and in doing so we've had anywhere from 1 to 5 cameras on us at all times the band is together. Luckily the videographers are cool, and Billy takes my ball busting with a good nature. I'm dreading seeing all of myself on film though, I hate seeing myself on video just performing music let alone doing work or just hanging out. I can't imagine what its gonna be like to see all these interactions and intimate moments between us, after having collectively become so used to having cameras around ALL the time.I really really really hate seeing myself on camera.

We've been managing to really get the cooking and eating on at the studio as well.. any in between time where takes are being dropped into protools from tape, or we're listening to takes just played, we all find ourselves in the kitchen going big. The mental exhaustion of recording is hard to realize in the moment, but when the hunger from that concentration and consequent mental exhaustion hits you, you realize that you're famished. We've probably gone through 20 cans of tomato soup, 16 boxes of cheezits, and 10 heads of broccoli. I've personally taken down a whole box of the 'Cuties' from trader joes this last week, which is about 30 small clementine tangerines in a box. I love those things to death. I've also had 8 bananas, two large things of yogurt, 10 fuji apples and enough triscuits and wheat thins to build a large replica of the Taj Mahal. Quesadillas, cereal, chicken soup, frozen pizza, veggie dogs, ice cream.. from the healthiest to the nastiest; we've been eating it all. You know the kind of hunger you have after swimming for a while? That's what we've been dealing with. Not to mention the late night munchie sessions hanging and watching John Bonham drum solos on dvd.

We return to the studio for the week tomorrow to continue work on the songs, where all the icing, bells, whistles, noise, synths, horns, pianos, and tomato soup will be added to the songs to satisfy and expand the musical visions we began with. Its nice, because this stage of the recording is much less stressful without the need to focus and sometimes stress about one's performance, thus allowing listening with different ears and minds. This is the stage where we begin to really surprise ourselves and see the songs go in directions we never could foresee or imagine.. and that's the treasure right there. I'll get some more pics up here, and perhaps some of us venturing up into the Angeles National Forest which is right behind us. We can look up into the mountains from our bedroom balcony every morning we wake up.. well, Joe and Matt are usually still sleeping when I do that but we shall make our own tiny expedition this week.

With tired hands,

S. Choi

Recording: Day 5

2009-02-08T21:11:00.000-08:00

We'll see how far I get through this update.. my computer is seriously not happy and much is not well with it. I've had it in n out of applecare at the Southcoast Plaza Mac store, starting with a firewire port being replaced and now ending with messed up speakers and a screwed display in a macbookpro that keeps restarting. Other than that, things are all good. I'm at home for the weekend in the LBC right now, heading back to the studio tomorrow morning where we all eat, sleep, and record throughout the week to stay focused and enjoy the solitude of the outskirts of Pasadena.

We began recording at 'The Mouse House' last Tuesday. The first day or two of recording is usually spent getting sounds, and the varieties of musical equipment set-up for the album.

With us, since we record the basic tracks live.. the set-up, sound refinement and trouble-shooting is a bit more of a production. Usually, when records are recorded multi-tracked (meaning one instrument at a time) there is only one thing at a time to consider... but since we have our whole band set-up, the process becomes a little more of a scene but ultimately sounds, feels and grooves way cooler. In between running through takes of our songs, we do a lot of lounging in the kitchen/living room area of the studio/house. We've been eating a lot of cheez-its and tomato soup.. C. Fudurich has been drinkin on his acai/blueberry/pomagranate juice and pushing us to get the best performances he can.

3 songs done! The work continues...

I'll check back with all you peoples in a couple days.

We will now begin to record the next full length Album/LP for our musical ensemble titled; 'RXBANDITS'

2009-02-02T20:00:00.000-08:00

...As with any sentimental moment, all the events leading up to it seem to have passed in a high-speed blur. We stood in our rehearsal space today after having moved all of our equipment out, and watched all the moments spent inside there pass in our minds, not quite so quickly but embellished with our own short-range nostalgia. We said goodbye to the place where the arrangements of sounds through various funny looking electronic devices were spawned... they're more commonly known as 'songs'. So tomorrow morning, we head to a quiet and beautiful outskirt in the hills of Pasadena to 'The Mouse House'. Our producer/engineer C. Fudurich will meet us there and we'll get down to changing strings, intonating our guitars, putting fresh drum heads on, and setting up our ridiculous stations of pedals, effects, and various instruments of various natures.. right before we head into the 'amp room' to pick out the various guitar amps we'll be wanting to have set-up for the different guitar sounds for different songs. Then there are approx 976.4 other steps to go through before we'll be in the live room, headphones on, synapses firing, to begin taking runs through the songs to get them down on 2" analog tape before being transferred into Pro-tools.

But that's all tomorrow.. for now, I'm just gonna take a shower, kick back and get my 8 hours. I have a big day tomorrow.

what have YOU been doing...

2009-01-28T21:42:00.000-08:00

... because this is what I've been doing. Status of pinched nerve in my neck: Improved. Pain: Still present. Prognosis: Good, should be tip-top by next week.

Check it:

Stoked

2009-01-25T00:27:00.000-08:00

They're cruisin. We're soundcheckin in Philadelphia. I never thought I would be on the other side of "that door".

I just spent all day tracking drums for the 2 new Machines songs. I still have a pinched nerve in my neck, but damn.. the new Machines tunes are savage. It feels so good to pound on the drums.

out of my gord.

2009-01-19T20:42:00.000-08:00

Heading home on my bike from Matt's the other night, I heard what I thought was the sound of distant drums with thin, cheap cymbals crashing. Part of me got excited. Turns out it was a shopping cart filled with overstuffed garbage bags being pushed down a Long Beach alley with its chunky asphalt. Is it accidental perfection.. the way those gaps and holes are spaced so that a shopping cart with approx. 14 lbs. being pushed at approx. 4.23 mph would create a standard 4/4 rock beat played by the frame rattling and shaking? Was this a serendipitous moment of music in the world meant for me, now made delegitimate by that dancing paper bag in 'American Beauty' which was really being swirled up by two giant shop fans by a couple pa's on set? I'm beginning to get deep.. really deep in this record. I've been cooking these songs over the hot stove for so long that I don't even know what they smell or taste like, but soon its time to serve them up.

We're due to begin recording at the beginning of feb. My 'Rocky' music has started in the background that I can hear faintly all day long, as all of us in the band begin to go through our own mental and physical routine for preparation of this recording. I think there's still a healthy amount of stress there for us, it reassures me that we aren't becoming complacent about the process, that we still have a lot to prove to ourselves as well as anyone who will listen, and that we still revere the creative building project that is making a record. We are by no means laying in a bed of our laurels. Any praise we have received, or not received to date, are being thrown out the window. Our conscious minds are focused on our music.. and we've left our subconscious to roam freely.. maybe they've meandered over to you. Our creative conscious is now made open and vulnerable to influences brought back by our wandering subconscious.. possibly a stick, a dead bird, or a piece of rope once used to tie down a drum being taken to a b-day party to be played.
I ask all of you to throw some thoughts our way, consciously or subconsciously. Feed our energy and let us never know how it changes or doesn't change things..I can see beauty in that. Then we can all wonder where you will be, and what you will be doing while we're in the studio, gripping our picks and sticks with sweaty hands nervously waiting to run through our next take..

FYI

2009-01-14T14:44:00.000-08:00

For most of us who have been touring for a while, a separation in ourselves has to occur. The cause and reason for this is as different as the individual but for MOST of us who do this musician thing for a living, it just goes down like that. By separation I mean a different lifestyle and/or persona which is determined by habit, attitude and general style of living aka lifestyle. The few that I have known who do not make this sort of separation don't live very happy lives when off-tour, and the others who live well off-tour don't have any fun while having to be ON tour. I've been both and everything in between.. forcing my home life to mimic my life on tour and vise-versa, and finally in my later 20's I feel like I've found a nice balance.

After I had gone through IN-gesting the immense ego-feed that being on tour was, I didn't know how to DI-gest it when I was at home.. later to realize that it wasn't something to be digested for me.. it was like an unhealthy food or drug which felt and tasted good but had no substance or "nutritional" value. I hate the ego.. and I love but ultimately hate having it fed. Then later on, trying to force my life on tour to emulate my life at home took my mind away from what it was I was doing out on a stage far far away, with 3 weeks to go before I returned. It has always been my pursuit to be humble, not for the image of being humble, but to leave the clearest path possible for my musical growth and artistic development. I ain't shit, and I know it which is not to say that I'm not proud of the things I've accomplished. Many fans often tell me that I seem so serious on stage, that I seem so aloof, unapproachable, and downright arrogant..and I realize that I don't have the warmest look on my face all the time.. but I cannot help my muscle and bone structure which was genetically pre-disposed. I assure you all that I do not feel that way, and am confident that everyone close to me, or who has spent any time talking to me (who isn't of low intelligence, or weak in character..because I can openly admit I'm a jerk to those kind of folk) will tell you that I am not like that.. or on purpose anyways. jk. I laugh a lot, and my friends love to make fun of the fact that you can't even see my eyes when I'm on a good roll.
Back to the point; I've been in home mode and now that this new record is more than just an idea, a demanded product, and a plan.. I'm starting to find myself saying to myself "oh yea, I'm in this band rxbandits and there's people who actually really like the music we make.. and they're actually excited about this new record!" It makes me feel really good. We're gonna be starting the recording process real soon now, and I'm having to realize that I'm more than just a guy who plays music for a living who loves cooking, reading, writing, an all the other caca that makes us all of us in rxb wannabe renaissance men. I'm part of something which is really only fortified by our listeners and fans. So yet again, I owe all of you a great big thanks.. Thank you for making our band something bigger than our individual selves because it has a whole lot to do with what keeps us going.

I'm watching 'Kickboxer' right now and can't stop laughing at the part where in his training Jean-claude has mentor homie drop this coconut on his gut from a couple feet up.

gettin clumsy

2009-01-11T10:06:00.001-08:00

I slightly pulled my thumb nail back off of my thumb while I was getting this piece of dirt off the beet I was about to juice. It doesn't look like much but it hurts so bad. I wasn't juicing just beets though..the juice I've been drinking also has celery, carrots, oranges and apples and sometimes cucumber and garlic. Trust me, I know its sounds gnar gnar but people who know what s up with juices know that its good and good for you. So after my ridiculous beet injury I woke up the next morning with it hurting even worse.. Yet due to its ridiculous nature I convinced myself it was all good and that I should stop being a pussy and go to Bright Lights (studio) to work on the 2 new Machines songs with Roger and Danny.. playing the drums was not a good idea. While playing, the tip of the drumstick hit my thumbnail dead-on and I was seriously on the ground in pain holding my thumb wishing I could cut it off right there. I could see Roger and Danny in my peripheral looking on in horror at me holding my hand like I had just sliced it open or something. Anyone who plays drums knows that that is a common drum injury. Right before that happened I even had the awesome 'punch the crash cymbal and slice your knuckle open' injury which might be the #1 drum injury, if not in the top 3 at the very least. There's all kinds of great stuff.. like hitting yourself in the face with your stick, hitting your finger or fingernail in my case, slamming your had on the rim of any given drum, cutting your fingers on cymbals or any other appendage flying around as you so confidently chuck your limbs around thinking you're looking uber cool. its all good though, there's no therapy like hitting the drums as hard as you possibly can for a few hours. We're gonna record these new Machines songs live in a couple weeks so I gotta condition, but going from playing guitar and keyboards for 4-6 hours everyday to playing the drums ain't so easy for me.

So the NAMM show is this week.. for those of you who don't know what that is, its a giant trade show for all the music product companies.. like the ASR for the music world. One of our endorsers, Dean Markley has asked me to do a signing at their booth on the thurs the 15th, and since they give us piles upon piles of free strings I felt obligated to oblige. No one there is gonna know who the fuck I am though.. I can just imagine some snotty kid asking me to sign an RX poster and then with his congested-sinus-entrapped-voice challenging me to a guitar duel and serving me in front of everyone there. I have no idea what to expect to be honest, but if you're gonna be there then feel free to roll up and say hi, I'll just be posted doin my thing and trying to get out of there as soon as possible after glad-handing a few of the artist relations reps for the companies that have something to offer. I hate it, but ladies and gentlemen this is called 'Playing ball'.

Did I tell you guys that 3 weeks ago I began official work on my first Symphonic Composition? A complete score for a 60 piece orchestra, chamber orchestra, or any symphonic group. I'll worry about who's gonna play it after I finish it, which is nowhere close to being in sight. That was merely a 'btw'.

Time to tackle this mountain of laundry in my closet thats even taken over my shoe rack. More of my book by Geoff Emerick in the awkward yet oddly comforting energy of the spin cycle since my washer and dryer can't even step to the amount of laundry I have. Time is the most valuable thing I got these days.

Stay creative peoples.

the gears continue to turn.

2009-01-07T09:22:00.000-08:00

When I went to get my bike I found that Officer (dick head) Perez of the Long Beach Police Department popped the back tire. Although this could have happened while being transferred I highly doubt it considering I have this bulletproof armadillo tire on the back wheel of the chariot. I gotta give it up to him though, that was a very effective little "fuck you".. and he got points for it, knowing that I'm gonna be thinking of him every second I spend changing my flat, which with these tires is not an easy task. After I got my bike back I went into the office of internal affairs at the LBPD and filed an official complaint which consisted of a written account of what happened and an interview with two of the detectives in charge of complaints against officers. After an official statement on record complete with a sterile meeting room, a desk which separated me from the two detectives, a fancy little digital dictaphone, them scribbling down notes at a diagonal angle as if they were taking down a phone number they didn't want to, and a very calculating me, telling them what happened. Here's the thing; these people that I was talking with weren't douches.. they kinda had the 'I know whats up' look in their eye so I tried to shoot it straight with em explaining that I realize this isn't a Rodney King situation, or like the poor guy who got shot in Oakland the other day at the Bart station by some idiot with a badge and a gun. But although this wasn't a matter of someone getting killed or a beat-down, guys like Officer Perez who obviously don't have a very happy life and who are probably surrounded by people who have to like him or pretend to like him, can't go running around intimidating and bullying the people he's supposed to be protecting. I explained to the detectives that "..if he wanted to be a dick and write a citation for Matt riding 100 yards without a bike light then I understand.." But it was apparent that this guy wasn't going to let us go unless we completely subdued to his aggression and said "sorry" like scared little highschool kids who got busted smoking weed or drinking. Here's the other thing; there's no way in hell we were going to do that. We're grown-ass men who've had plenty of experience with 'I got picked on and was 2nd string on the football team' cops, and Matt and I even talked about how it was worth anything to not feel the frustration of letting that guy walk all over us even if it was at the cost of getting rolled and having your bike taken, and spending more hours out of our already busy-freakingout-we're about to start recording-schedule to let this guy know he's a punk mother fucker. Enough about him, this guy's already wasted enough of our time.

I wrote another song that I can't even play properly. I think its a good thing.. at the very least I'm glad my creative mind is still staying one step ahead of my physical abilities.

The Cops Take Matt and My bike.

2009-01-03T01:13:00.000-08:00

It was an easy night at first.. A leisurely ride to The Pike in our beloved lbc. Some pitchers of celebration ale with c-gak, matt and joey.. end with Matt riding my fixie down the side street literally a hundred yards without a light, a cop rollin up on us like a 'roided-out football player and them taking my bike! Matt went for a ride, I walked home. I could tell you all the details but its pointless.. They got guns and more dudes than we do to support their logic. Ironically, earlier that day I was commenting on how most Long Beach cops I met were pretty cool, probably because they had real police work to do. I take that back. C'est la vi my friends, everyone is ok. Now I have to get my bike back... AGAIN (but a different one). This time from the fuzz.. by bike is gonna be fuzzy.

'Here There and Everywhere, my life recording The Beatles' by Geoff Emerick is my latest quicksand. This is the guy who has engineered every Beatles record from 'Revolver' on.. and he's a genius, damn articulate and as cool as ice cream. Within the first 20 pages you get to hear about how he gets the job from George Martin, to the band walking in and starting tracking 'Tomorrow Never Knows' and how he plugged Johns vocal mic into the Wurly to get that sound of John 'chanting from a mountain top' as Mr. Lennon referred to it. If you're a dork for this stuff like Matt and I are, then you're gonna wanna sink your teeth into this book asap.

After I get my bicycle back, I think I'm gonna go for a ride on the beach bike path, as I dodge everyones new year resolutions crowding my way. Its ok, it'll clear up in a few weeks.. what! You know most of these people don't stick to it.. I believe that if you're gonna do something then do it, and if you need the first of the year to do it as a reason or an excuse then you're gonna find a reason or and excuse as to why you couldn't keep it up. People should sign up and register their new years resolutions.. and if you don't stick to it you have to restart it next new year until you finish it. People shouldn't be allowed to pick a goal, and put it down only to pick something new the next year so greedily. Maybe soon I'll tell you guys about the creepy buff dude at the gym who follows me around and stares at me.

Back in the bay.. again.

2008-12-22T10:31:00.000-08:00

yet again, I come back up to the bay area and realize this is where I belong. The LBC is great but I'm from northern California and they are very very different place. I got to Oakland and immediately met up with Brandon from FNY at Great Wall Veggie house which was soooo appropriate on that rainy yesterday. Later on, Bagel's sister was playing at Slim's. Her band was opening for Hepcat..which was cool because that's a band who's tunes put out some serious good vibes, and I haven't been to Slim's to WATCH a show and chill for about 6 years. Every other time I've been there has been to play with RX or someone else. I was really enjoying just standing there having a beer and listening. There's a french guy across the street from the club who has a little crepe stand, which is really just a drunk/munchie net for all the peoples coming out of Slim's and the other bars. Bottom line; you can't deny Nutella.

So I'm headed up to Santa Rosa today to make the family rounds, see some friends and get some tire chains for our little roadtrip up to my Aunt's in Portland. More to come soon... I feel the tides of my existential ramblings beginning to rise.

Is it super lame when I give mundane reports of my activities and my blab about how I like it or don't? I guess I'm just trying to find some balance between that and my pseudo-intellectual bullshit. Should I just write short stories or something?

I'll orange YOUR rhyming dictionary.

2008-12-14T11:11:00.000-08:00

Cheers friends.

I'm still moderately stressed out, but I feel good.. back on top of stress and negative thoughts overall. I'm sure all of you can relate to the same sort of rhythms that we encounter as humans with these things called emotions.. sometimes I think it was nature just showing off. I just got home from a hot bowl of Pho after practice today, we recorded some more tunes which are starting to finalize themselves and they're feeling pretty good. We have well over 40 minutes of music now and I'm starting to get a better idea of what this record is going to sound like. As usual, with RX the songs I'm writing are just the soundtrack to these mini-movies in my head.. its just how it goes. The other times, music forms in my head on its own, and begins to generate an image which turns into the moving version, with a theme, a purpose, a story and a feeling. So far there's some; roaming of mars, saving of princess's, being thrown in the ring with a bull, metroid, mario bros, storming the Bastille all over again, donkey kong, Elvis Costello on steroids and speed, and a little digital espionage. That's not even the half of it. One of the tunes has more metal picking than a Slayer song and it kills my elbow.. we're gonna have to really stay on top of that one live or its gonna be a train wreck. If we pull it off (which we basically have to) its gonna be quite impressive.. I hope. One of the tunes starts with this keyboard part on my Moog that I fuck up about half of the time I play it. Bah.

I'm not as jerky as I look. Sick at 5 am

I'm very much looking forward to heading back up to Santa Rosa this weekend for the Christmas festivities, but not before I stop at Bagel's for a night or two to hang and have some Great Wall. My mom keeps hassling me about making it up by sat afternoon because of this Christmas dinner she's making for her friends. A couple days later, I'm gonna be road tripping it with my grandma and my mom up to Portland where my aunt Penny and uncle Jeff live...they're gonna make me drive the whole way, I know it. But its cool, I'm looking forward to blasting Fugazi and listening to the rest of 'The Golden Compass' rollin with my makers. Plus, I need to get out of Southern California for a bit. I really really do. Thanks to everyone who tried to reach out and hook me up with Sibelius.. I was looking for a non-torrented version but I appreciate the thought. I've been kinda getting compulsive on compositions lately, but that's another story. I'm sick right now, I got sick because it was Roger's brothers birthday and we drank a bunch of ouzo, absinthe and beer and had a night basketball game. I was all sweaty and wet in the cold air and woke up the next morning completely durst (not a typo).

Have your eye sockets ever hurt?

On another abrupt-subject-change/random though in typical me fashion; Johannes Brahms 'The Tragic Overture' Op. 81 written in 1880 is one of my favorite compositions of all time.. I won't lie, it can make me kinda misty eyed sometimes. Shut up. Go check it out.

I'm going back to bed

End transmission.

roar for me Pedro. sing for me David.

2008-12-04T07:22:00.000-08:00

I just ate the sticker on my apple because my dumb ass wasn't paying attention. Damn you sweet and crunchy Fuji apples. I've been forgetting to breathe lately too.. I'll be sitting there working on something and then all of a sudden feel my pulse speed up and the dizziness set in and as I'm about to pass out I remind myself that the breathing is supposed to be KIND-of involuntary so I can stay alive. I'm on tilt. Not Balanced. Not Centered. I've been covered in this blanket of emotion, strong enough to take away your appetite, make you sleep less, your mind races as you feel this surge running through your body from a place in your soul you forgot existed. I wish I was talking about Love, and although I am fortunate to have it; I'm talking about stress. We all know it, we all have it, and we all hate it. The adverse physical effects that stress can put on the human body is a basic reminder of the power of the mind. Subsequently I've also developed this defeatist attitude over the past week about pretty much everything. A phase? Probably.. As the 'Tao of Pooh' and 'The Te of Piglet' might say, I'm being an 'Eeyore'. If you don't know what the hell I'm talking about then check out those books (as with most reading, not to be taken beyond building a repertoire of ideas and perspectives on life to further our balance and worldly views). I need to get out of this funk.. I need to get out of it bad.

I wonder if my sub-conscious has put me in this mode to finish the work I need to do, as the impending Christmas time quickly heads our way its crunch time in RX camp, as well as me trying to finish all the other projects I'm currently working on. OR, I wonder if its just fatigue of the spirit which is making me this way, and its survival-optimism that is trying to find some purpose in feeling shitty. Or maybe its a cycle put into action by an outside force, kept in rotation by me, and only broken by me not being a shitty shit head (that made sense to me). Lets hope I figure it out soon. Maybe I need to make a 'life doesn't suck that bad' list.

A new song I've put together that we've jammed out a little is kind of cool.. Its a nod to an older RX style of Police style rock, with a full Synthed out intro, an Elvis Costello on Steroids part, and a legit Refused style breakdown. Sometimes you need to write a song that ignores your cerebral creativity and is just fun to play and feels good to rock..Probably more than sometimes. I guess its our own balance of those things that has shaped our sound as band.. well.. ANY band really.

I know I'm not alone, but that doesn't make me feel any better or worse. Those of us on the North American continent are all just doing our 700-900 Mph rotation on the earth in space trying to get our get on. Could the centrifugal force just pull me out to space for a little bit? I gotta get back to the equator to max out the effect.

Peeeeeeaaaaace'd OUT.

Digital Contact

2008-11-27T21:02:00.001-08:00

I'm not sure I understand the need people feel to send holiday mass text messages. I'm not hating, its totally cool with me but I just think its funny. I've gotten 11 of them today. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Boo Hoo

2008-11-25T12:29:00.000-08:00

For years I've tried to disprove the connection between anguish and creativity. It was very discouraging for me to think that my calling in life as a musician, an artist and a creative free thinker was doomed to a literary matrimony of unhappiness to produce anything worthwhile. I have not succeeded.. I have only done the opposite time and time again. Is it possible? perhaps, but I'm definitely not the chosen one to pull the sword from that stone. While being extremely stressed out and unhappy over this past week I've come up with more ideas I love than I have in the past year. I sometimes wonder if there is a pathology behind unhappiness and states of mind with our creative thoughts, or perhaps it is our minds perception of what we create during these times that changes.. I'm left with no answers and only more questions. I am determined to find a way to continue creating without being a miserable bastard.. I seek happiness goddamnit!

We're rocking so hard it was raining ash.

2008-11-19T16:50:00.000-08:00

Or maybe it was the giant fires and the Santa Ana's that did that.. who's to say really. I rode up to the Potholder this morning to meet up with Portugal to have some breakfast. They're in town on tour so we got down. I had to make up for the fact that I totally bailed on their Chain show last night, because I was Leisure King. And now we return to practicing and writing and chillin in our purple rehearsal studio. Somehow our short 3 day trip to Boston last week really took it out of us.. that was a tough little trip but the show was pretty fun so I'd say it was worth it, but I had some pretty good musical ideas while I was watching cooking shows on the plane. Where the hell is my brain right now...I'm not even gonna go back and fix that ridiculously stupid run-on sentence which I'm kind of even adding to right now.

This is my desk

I think I'm losing my mind because I've been recording and glued to the Triton all day.. that little lcd touch screen and the beeps it makes while you try and mold something out of the crappy preset sounds in there really twist my head. I sometimes feel like I'm gonna have battery acid bleeding out of my eyes wile I watch some sort of circuit board slowy take over my body..watch out for ladytigerblade.

My cpu is not stoked on 20 tracks of drums

this Playlist has gotten some serious use lately on every run and every bike ride:

Built to Spill - The Plan
Archers of Loaf - web in front
Fugazi - Badmouth and Waiting Room
Green Day - Uptight
Bayside - I think I'll be Ok
Gangstarr - Full Clip
The Hives - Die All right
Knapsack - Decorate the Spine (my 11th grade anthem)
The Knife - You take my breath away
Swingin Utters - Storybook Disease
Weezer - El Scorcho
No Knife - Academy Flight Song
Deltron 3030 - Things you Can do
Kanye West - Through The Wire
Jawbreaker - Million
Jawbreaker - Shield Your Eyes (my 10th grade anthem)
Archers of Loaf - Scenic Pastures
Gorilla Biscuits - New Direction
Soundgarden - My wave
Saves The Say - You Vandal
Lightning Bolt - ride the sky
The Shins - Kissing the Lipless
Converge - Concubine
The Gain - Frustrated
Roberta flak - Killing me softly

Time to go grub down and then go to practice.

2008-11-06T11:39:00.000-08:00

So it looks like we're flying to Boston next week to play a show at Northeastern University on the 13th. Should be cool because we always love playing out on the east coast. We've been practicing and writing again, we were working on this new tune yesterday that is not only mental wrencher but a hand killer as well..I hate my small asian hands sometimes.

a list of 10 things I've been loving this week.

10. Gordon Ramsays F-Word. A most righteous cooking show.
9. This very first model of SansAmp I've been using for some recording
8. My new rug
7. The E.S.P Les Paul that belongs to my friend Max that I've been playing a lot.
6. Trader Joe's Multi-grain whole wheat bread.
5. Key Lime Yogurt
4. Back to the Future 2 (I go through phases where I just watch random sections of
the same movie everyday.)
3. Posters of vintage maps of some of my favorite cities around the world. I bought
way too many of the,m
2. The explosions from the new James Cameron movie they're filming down the street.
(actually I don't really love it at all, it sucks.)
1. My shower mat that just got washed and feels good under my feet again.

Shifting gears:

Questions must always be asked. The big picture must always stay in focus, and we must be realistic about what our new president can do within the already established governmental system we actually have. Although I do not necessarily believe this speech entirely applies directly to the new president-elect himself..it can at the very least help broaden the perspective of what he's working with and/or for. You decide for yourself. cheers to Chris Sherriff for hooking me up with the link.

http://www.blackcommentator.com/42/42_malcolm.html

I really can't drink coffee.. or at least I shouldn't

2008-10-31T10:51:00.000-07:00

The stuff that makes the world go 'round..People love it and drink it all day, enjoying its wonderful aroma and taste while it relaxes them as they sit and talk with their friends before heading home and going to bed. I drink it at 8 in the morning and even after I've made it through my anxiety filled, elevated heart-rate-tummy-ache-day I still feel like a re-animated zombie who can't focus his mind on anything but can't stop moving to sleep or relax. I'm just not a person who needs uppers, I need downers. I think I was born with an overactive mind and although there are those millions around the world always trying to find something to boost, hype, energize and tweek themselves my only pursuit is to find things to relax myself and slow it down. All my friends make fun of me for my low tolerance to caffeine.. 'The Painter' Bagel (my new name for him) is a religious coffee drinker and whenever I'm over at his house he always takes evil pleasure in making me drink giant cups of his gnarly Peet's coffee he makes at home and laughs at me doing back flips trying to rip my eyeballs out. I'm a tea freak.. I love green tea, I love white tea (which is fancy green tea) and I love being a 28 year old asian guy who likes to write about liking tea and his inability to drink coffee..I'm such a dork. I don't really love writing about that, I just felt really stupid right now actually, but I shall remind myself that I write these things to free my subconscious from my insecurities by letting the world see how lame I am. I know teas can have as much caffeine or more than coffee.. but coffee just fucks me up too bad. There is a singer from a 90's Chicago band that is one of my favorites.. and he writes in a book on canvas about his daily routine of humidifying his voice, pre show warm-ups, and among other things what sort of soymilks and/or creams he uses in his coffee and why. Much respect to him and his music but I don't wanna be that guy. so I shall end this section with; "Steve Choi will drink coffee and get fucked up, but he prefers tea". Mundane enough for you? HA!

Now here is something that doesn't make me feel like a dork, or make me insecure or anything of the sort.. quite the opposite actually. Here are some videos that have been brought to my attention of people covering our songs.. I gotta say that for me its one of the biggest and best compliments I could be paid. Stupid Sentimental Steve shall now launch into another explanation regarding why seeing other people play songs he wrote is so touching because he never forgets that time in his life and its such a strange thing to even think that anyone would ever notice our music let alone value it enough to want to play it.. but maybe I'll stop him.

Some dudes playing 'Battle'. Its nerve racking to get up in front of small groups of people sitting down and still try and rock their faces. I give these guys props for holding it together.

This one is a trip.. the dudes are definitely keeping their stage show in check, maybe had some red bulls before the set? they even play a little jammage before the song starts... proper.

You know why this video is legit? because they like our song, they like to rock, and they like to rock our song (although some of you may argue to what degree they rock). But fuck it, it doesn't get more legit than that. there's too many hater comments on this video. I'm honored that some guys in japan wanna step to 'decresendo' as a 4 piece.. it looks like they normally play Lagwagon songs or something.

This one.. this one is just awesome.

Obviously there are those videos online also of shredders and shredd-ets playing guitar, bass, vocals, drums or any combo of those to our songs.. But that's something different. Those who shred know who they are, and our songs will be just another little stop on their musical journey, but to see these people put in the work to play these songs as a group is just next lev. There are already hundreds of 14 year old there who could play all my songs and shred me any day, and no matter what you do its necessary to remember that there will always be someone one who comes along that will better than you at whatever you do.. the more you put your stuff out there the more material these people have to learn from and boost off of. I personally love knowing that, but watch out all you young shredders out there because our new stuff has many parts that are really hard for me to play (maybe not for you guys). However I will say that 99 percent of the videos I see of our songs, are either re-done because certain parts are too difficult, or plain butchered to be able to play them and that also makes me feel good because I know we're not making it too easy and that lets me know I'm doing something right. Keep practicing peoples, I know I will.

Possibly the most annoying thing on the face of the planet...

2008-10-22T15:51:00.001-07:00

..is when someone like the republican-vice-presidential-nominee-northernredneck-uncultured-incompetent-Palin speaks about the election and says they are "putting this in God's hands, that the right thing for America will be done at the end of the day on Nov. 4." Forget that fact that I'm not christian, and that I don't believe Jesus died for our sins..this isn't some atheistic rant, its just a totally illogical statement that is fucking stupid. Actually, Republican Vice Presidential Nominee Palin, its not up to god, its not up to god at all because there's this thing called the 'Electoral College' and it is ultimately the deciding factor in the election because a candidate can win by electoral votes even if they lose the popular vote (the one that matters, but others argue doesn't protect the rights of smaller states which the electoral college does...either way, its not democratic considering that not all electors are even voted in) And on top of that, anyone already in the position to run for president already has the means and the resources to do some shady shit which we have experienced first hand without anyone being able to prove it.
Yes, she believes in god so in her belief god has power and influence over whichever outcome we see. I get that its her fundamental belief system so it doesn't really make sense for me to argue it and try to dismantle her believing that god will oversee the outcome of this. I am merely expressing my frustration for people so blatantly lying, mixing, and misconstruing their personal agendas motivated out of greed and self benefit with 'Gods will'. This is all coming from Palin who also referred to an environmentally devastating pipe-line running through Alaska as being part of... you guessed it, "Gods will". Oh well, I guess this isn't the first or the last time..there is a legacy of wonderfully horrible things done in gods name that has to be lived up to by the future generations of right-wing-conservative-christianexploiting idiots. Any of you who share this belief with people like G.W. Bush, or S. Palin can read this then and think about how god in all his power, had the devil command Steve Choi to write this, so that all the good Christians of the world can see what the devil does, and how not to be so its a wonderful gift from god, a "blessing in disguise". Do they not realize that ANYthing can be fabricated into anyone's or anything's will or doing.. its called rhetoric. All this bullshit over mass-airwaves and thrown in our face like dirt at warped tour.. makes me feel like I'm taking crazy pills.

P.s. I normally don't like to write about and/or discuss religion and politics, and the two together is twice as painful. In my eyes, the essence of life exists in spite of those things, although I do recognize the influence of those things, especially religion, on shaping our individual ideas of what living is all about. I write this only as a release of my emotions and not to influence anyone else and tell them what they should believe. A personal belief of mine is this: Do you believe in something that I don't, like a christian jesus-god-spirit? (the 'Holy Trinity' for those who don't know) well as long as it doesn't have to come between us, and we get along, then lets not talk about it and continue being friends.

I'm making potato soup after I shower, and its gonna be bomb.

I grow another branch on my communicative tree

2008-10-16T15:47:00.000-07:00

now those of you who have some interest in what I'm doing (which I still find puzzling, but which I appreciate greatly) can keep up with even more of the mundane things going through my head and my day to day enjoyment of life. Twitter.com/rxchoi Check out what I had for dinner or something.

One of our new songs is gonna rip off The Meters and I'm not sorry about it. peace.

music is overwhelming

2008-10-14T23:06:00.000-07:00

Being a musician, specifically being in a band is an entirely unique circumstance of creativity (well ideally only creativity, but we all know the rest of the bullshit that people get caught up in with being in a band). "Obviously" many would say. There are so many departments of attention and knowledge required to A: Get people together who are all proficient enough at their instruments to hold it down (its always hard to find the legit drummers) B: Have someONE or some-All to have enough of a vision for an aesthetic or sound, and C: Have those people be able to hang and get along. "Duh"?.. maybe so. After all that though, after many hours of practice and hard work you can still just suck. I'm not one to judge anyone's music, but like everyone else I can get my hate on for a lot of stuff to be funny, or just because I really think its horrible and its everyone's right. Now I could launch into all kinds of humorous situations about rookie moves on and off stage to get some laughs right now, but I shall not digress because I have a point to make, and I know I'm sounding like a jaded, cynical, pretentious a-hole right now... Which is why I must continue with making said point.

me and you baby

My point is this; We all have things music we like, and we all hear music we think is utter crap. We all have different connections to music and characteristics which we seek to even further diversify criteria for liking or not liking something we hear. But you know what I love? I love it when I hear that guy singing so out of tune, playing a stolen riff, while singing clumsy analogies and similes in an attempt to be witty and charming, and its not because I enjoy putting it down. If I had it my way, I'd like everything because how good would life be if you just appreciated everything you tasted, heard, saw, and touched. I enjoy hearing the horrible guy at open mic because seeing these people bravely exercise their creative right in front of whoever will watch and or insult them is inspiring to me. For reals. First of all, it doesn't mean a damn thing if I think it sucks, because that person's art lives in spite of what ANYone thinks. Although I can be way more critical about music from my experience doesn't make my opinion worth anymore than anyone's. I'm just happy that there are people out there who are confident in what they do, because it helps me with my insecurities with my own creativity. At the end of the day, I write music for myself. However, it would be a lie to say that I don't care what others think of my own music, if that were the case I would be in just a true garage band which played only... in the garage. People can say they don't care if people hate their music if they go public with it, but they can't say they don't care what anyone thinks at all because playing out and trying to get fans is caring that they like you, which I'm not dissing because I'm a part of that. And let me just say that there is plenty of music made solely for myself no one will ever hear which every musician should have. Anyways, there's so much of the time I'm second guessing my music, getting down on it, and just plain old getting worried that people are gonna think it sucks which is totally ridiculous and dumb. Seeing everyone doin their thing, whether people like it or not reminds me that the only thing that matters is expressing yourself. If you get it, everyone else just falls to the background. Creativity, self expression, and an unapologetic approach to showing the world whats in your brain and soul is the only real thing in art and music. Am I getting "DUH"'s yet? Well I forget all that stuff sometimes. SO, thank you to everyone in the world making their music, singing horribly, doing ridiculous interpretive dances, making awesome paintings, and whatever else you do, for reminding me that the only thing that matters is you yourself being happy with what you're doing and putting out for reals, and basking in the light of you being stoked on your creation. Fuck everyone else.

Someone send me a large jar of Marmite for my toast please. No really though.. Marmite.

Denver, FNY and my stupid whig.

2008-10-06T10:24:00.000-07:00

I've been home from tour for a month now.. four weeks of relaxation, leisure, indulgence and stress about writing music pass the time quite effectively. Since my trip to Santa Rosa I've continued to sort out a lot of new themes and grooves for new RX material and Peace'd out. I've been jamming Freddie Hubbard 'Open Sesame', the Mike Patton Dillinger Escape Plan E.P. called 'Irony is Dead Scene' and Wilco just trying to soak in all the different styles I love so much. I think I'm going to try and design a keyboard and small recording set-up in my shower, because I get so many great ideas in the there being so happy and stimulated with the hot water and such. If I could also find a way to record ideas while on my bike that would be prime. I could pump out music to no end just from the shower and bike rides. Inspiration is rarely convenient, so understand this when I die of electrocution in the shower or from being hit by a car recording ideas.

So friday, we flew out to Denver to play this show at CU Boulder. On our way there my guitar was lost by Southwest airlines so I ended up using an exact copy of my guitar lent to me by a nice gentleman named Steven who played in one of the opening bands called 'Hearts of Palm'. Steven having the same guitar as me worked out quite nicely, seeing as I was contacted AFTER the show by the airline to tell me that my guitar had gone on to Philadelphia after not making my flight to Denver getting caught up in the baggage screening flail session run by the struggling peoples of the tsa. When I landed back in LA 25 hours later on Saturday morning my guitar was waiting for me at the baggage claim like it had never left. Sneaky bastard.

I also need to start brushing up on my Facing New York songs. I'll be playing guitar with them for their album release shows on Oct 10th at the Troubador and Oct 25th and 26th at Bottom Of the Hill in San Francisco (yesss another reason to go back and hang in the bay). I played with them on the dates they were on this last headlining tour we did, a few of you might have seen that, but I'm playing a couple more songs I'm not familiar with so I'm a little nervous. My hands have felt so shitty and clumsy lately, sometimes you just gotta take a break. I'm also about to freak out and shave my head because my hair is wayy too long and I can't stand it. I'm waiting for some fairy to come and pop this helmet of hair off of my head in the middle of the night so I can walk straight and think normally. I see videos of us from shows we've played, and pictures and interviews and I look like a korean troll. I hate it.

Check out my Jose Canseco mullet and Roger's ridiculous face at this Machines show in Tehachapi a little while ago. A fun hardcore show at a gym while I'm wearing my Built To Spill shirt.

Who knows how much time I'll have for anything this month though. I get kinda freaked out looking at my calendar for October, because everyday on my ical has something written on it by me, and I'm afraid to read the little boxes..but its time. I'm ready because autumn is here, the 5 pm darkness is on its way with the cooler temperatures and I'm ready to bury my head in my work and try and write more music that I feel is better than the last. Self inflicted creative pressure sucks, but the stress of trying to meet some intangible expectation from our listeners is even worse. Not our listeners fault, I can only take it as a compliment as they so enthusiastically ask me what the new album will be all about after the show, but as they walk away I just feel.. scared. ha. Oh well, complacency produces nothing worth while in my life. Come out the FNY shows and support these fools, they are the real on the music tip.

and read 'The Golden Compass' trilogy, its legit. I'm listening to part one on audiobook currently.

End transmission.

My town and Peace'd Out

2008-09-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

I grew up in a place called Santa Rosa, CA, and it is in this small city approx. 55.2 miles north of San Francisco where I made the transition from a kid who only knew classical music to hearing "Paradise City" by Guns 'n Roses which thrust me into a rock music tailspin. The only tapes I really had before that were Paula Abdul 'Forever your Girl' and Bobby Brown 'My Prerogative', which I listened to heavily. The rest of the scenery on my musical path is just far too dense to even try and write about here, otherwise you'd be getting a 5000 word essay on all the bands which carried me to where I am now composing music and being jaded and bitter about the rest of the generic crap that is out there today while I play in RXB. But in order to get a slightly better understanding of my musical roots just know these things: 1 - I had an older sister who was 7 years my senior, and beginning at the age of 7 I began listening to all of her records which mainly consisted of Goth-Industrial bands like Skinny puppy, Dead Can Dance (which was one of my first concerts my sister took me to), Nine inch nails, Clan of Xymox, Big Black, and Meat Beat Manifesto. 2 - Nirvana changed my life. 3 - Green Day changed my life again and punk, especially bay area punk became super important to me. 4 - By the age of fifteen I forgot about genres and loved everything from Wu-Tang to Neutral Milk Hotel and Braid. So why am I telling you all this? Well, because I recently had the great opportunity of reconnecting with my musical past AND the place I grew up where I discovered these bands and a whole special suburban sub-culture which was the Santa Rosa punk scene. (sorry for the words 'punk' and 'scene' put together..I just don't know what else to call it). Being a teen in Santa Rosa, there were those venues we hung out at every weekend.. and there were those bands. I'll spare naming all of them because none of you will probably know or care who they are (ahem phoenix theater ahem).. but for the record there were many amazing bands and a lot of notable musicians to come out of Sonoma County (which Santa Rosa is in).

SO.. I'm drying off backstage at Slim's in SF after our show and I get a call from an old friend named Dave, who was in the local band I played drums in during high school called The Blockheads. I was basically totally lucky because I was the only one in high school and the rest of the guys were older and in college and I got to be the young buck in a notable local band with the cool older kids. We sounded like a indie-power-pop version of a bay area punk band at the time.. uh yea. So Dave tells me about how this local music magazine is getting a handful of bands back together for this reunion show and gives me the details. I must admit that I normally wouldn't have had much interest in doing this if i wasn't too busy already, but the cosmos rigged the deck because after I hung up with Dave, my sister called to tell that she'd be coming back for a visit from The Gambia (a small nation in Africa where she's working for two years) right around the same time of the show. I told my sister I'd be flying up there, and I called Dave to tell him I was in...it was in the cards. So a week after we played our last note of the tour in Phoenix, Arizona with all of Portugal the man and Kay Kay dancing onstage with us, I went home and began learning all these Blockheads songs which I played hundreds of times...over ten years ago. Surprisingly, the songs came back to me quite easy but I could definitely see how the musically amped 16 year old had left my body and I was thinking about how I was gonna play all those 8th notes on the hi-hat. Oh drums, how you humble me. So we practiced once, the night before the show and I must say that we all were pretty amazed at how easy it came back to us after not having played together for over 10 years now. We played the show, and the whole experience starting from getting together and until the end of the night went about the best it possibly could. I got to see all my Santa Rosa homies that I do a bad job of staying in touch with and all the randoms I haven't seen in years which basically put into perspective who I am and where I am now.. whoever and wherever that is.

What is keeping it real? A few of my friends from back home had asked me what exactly my perspective on coming back to play with my band from high school was. They asked if it was sort of a novel thing, seeing if I was amused by the amateur nature of the whole thing along with the drum set I was using from the junior high school Dave teaches at as they only saw as me being used to doing legitimate tours and playing shows with production and staff and such. I told them no, but rather going into it I was of the mind-set that I must do these things for fun, but also to remember not to take myself too seriously..My band (rx) is lucky to have such devoted fans, and to be able to support us all but we are by no means a big or very popular band so I enjoy all musical experiences whether it be playing with RX in front of 24,000 people at Bonnaroo or coming home to Santa Rosa to rock an outdoor bbq reunion show in the backyard of a hair salon. We love the little corner we inhabit in the musical world. But while onstage behind the drum set in a setting that looked like the most righteous backyard-bash right out of a movie, with a handful of people singing all the words to these songs from years ago I realized that this was much more than just novel nostalgia; these were my roots. All of those people, all of those experiences, and all of that music didn't just influence me but rather MADE me do what I do today. Had it not been for my first bands to empower me and facilitate making music, I would not have the confidence and vision to continue making music in a non-structured environment such as orchestra and symphonies. So much of self growth is not even developing skills as much as it is REALizing abilities we already have which we are not confident enough to explore and further strengthen. So, as I was looking around at all these people while playing, my mind began to wander (which is a bad thing when drumming and needing to remember song structures) and I began to see our 28-33 year old asses onstage workin it while my mind made its way into the middle of the audience perspective and who I saw onstage behind the drums wasn't the jaded, disillusioned musician in his late 20's.. It was the 16 year old korean kid who was so enthralled to be involved in something that broke him free from his conservative and structured up-bringing, it was the person who was excited all week at school for the show at The Phoenix on friday night, it was the kid who dreamed of being able to go on tour one day and just be a musician who got to write completely original music any time he wanted, and seeing myself in that way not only put into perspective my hidden arrogance, but was a wonderful reminder as to where I've ended up and how lucky I feel to being doing what I do. This was for me, for lack of a better term my pilgrimage. I'm not Malcom X returning to Africa, I'm not on some religious pursuit or trying to reconnect with my ethnicity, but I did return to where my musical roots still live and take away many things from it as it put into context who I am now.. and the last I checked that is a large part of the point of making a pilgrimage. I know this all sounds sooo cheesy and sentimental but fuck it, aren't we all just trying to 'keep it real'? Well this is the way I know how.

Fri- Sept 19th - Roger and I left for the studio yesterday morning at about 7 am to work on a new project I'm doing with Vinnie and Mike from the IATA. I was playing down drum tracks and scratch guitar for these two songs and I am sore as hell, but today I get to chill so its all good. I'm pretty much gonna be hiding out in my house until we have to go play at Cal Poly Pomona next week working on music and more new RX stuff. Sorry its been so long between blogs, but when you come home from tour it takes about a week in the mental decompression chamber to get your thoughts together. And on that note, I'm gonna peace out to the farmer's market right now to get some veggies.

The end of Mobile Summer Rock Camp '08

2008-09-01T11:12:00.000-07:00

..aka tour.. The First week seems to lag so hard because you're aware of every moment being back on tour away from the comfort that you were used to, tripping out on the fact that you're not at home. And as you start to get into the rhythm of things you find your self two weeks into the tour, with two weeks to go and you wonder where the last two weeks have gone. Then you blink, and you're sitting in bed at your hotel in Phoenix and the last show of the tour is hours away and you try and recall all the events that you can so as not to let all the wonderful memories completely escape you. Not only for the fact that we want to remember these times, but for the fact that because our day at the office (tour) is often times months long, your life really starts to just speed waaay up when the repetition of touring life kills your ability to remember these huge chunks of time and energy which you spend out on the road. I personally don't like having months and years of my life falling away.. life is too short for me not to remember the things I'm doing.

Thanks to the universe for making this an awesome tour.

Home Sweet Home... for a bit.

2008-08-20T22:26:00.000-07:00

There is no way to describe the feeling of walking through your front door after being away for weeks even months at a time. Then there's no way way to describe the feeling of laying in your bed after weeks even months at a time.. then comes the shower, the fridge, the peoples, the meal and on and on and on. Many people can relate to what I'm saying here, musicians are not at all the only people to travel and be away from home a long time.

So, I just made this scramble with basil and oyster mushrooms that i got from the farmers market this morning which are super legit.. the way to eat well is to buy whats fresh and cook what you buy. Super dork #1 right here; when I got to the farmers market this morning with my lady I immediately got so excited at all the awesome fruits and vegetables that I haven't been getting on my boca burger at denny's for the past month on the road. There's also this Tamale stand which rivals the Tamale lady at Zeitgeist in SF which we all had a healthy dose of a couple days ago. We posted up in the garden at Zeitgeist for a good 5 hours hangin and puttin down pitcher after pitcher. We chilled with some guys from Dublin, and then smoked with some guys from Rome and although its pretty cool to have international party on both sides of you, when you're in SF or at Zeitgeist specifically you don't really think much of it. I need to move back up there, and not take those sort of interactions for granted... I am the jaded traveler.

I gotta get dressed and head out to the Glasshouse for soundcheck now.. tonight is gonna be fun as hell, and all the better knowing I get to sleep in my own bed again tonight!

"chi-town, whats goin' on"

Homestretch.

2008-08-15T10:43:00.000-07:00

blah blah blah blah Denver, Colorado was great. Blah blah blah blah Salt Lake, City was as strange as it always is. Blah blah blah Seattle, Washington is tonight, and tomorrow I get to turn 28 years old. Now, If I were turning 28 a few years ago I might have just gone on a long ramble about taking stock, looking forward and just generally assessing where my life is but to be honest I'm not really feeling any of that. For the first time in my life I'm actually looking forward to getting older.. I've come to realize that every year I get older I only learn more ways to express and enjoy myself and this is no bullshit to try and convince myself that getting older is cool since I have no choice in the matter. My breakdown is 74% 18 year old and 26% 60 year old... My mom says I still look 20 and others say I rep Like an old man drinking tea and playing chess in the park. Whatever.

So the homestretch, the run down the west-coast begins today the moment we pull up in front of El Corazon and I gotta say that its a great feeling. Kay Kay joined up on the tour in Denver and we've all been impressed not only by their live show, but their similar approach to jamming and writing music. Having all of our friends open our tour and having our new lovers Portugal the Man on this tour have made is grrrrrrrreat. I must say that this has been one of the musically best tours I can think of that we've ever done. Watching Portugal jam out before we go on definitely stokes me out and anyone else who knows what I'm talking about knows that your love for a bands music can be boosted quite a bit by your liking for them as people...which can work adversely as well.

My legs itches, bad... I hate mosquitoes. During our 836 mile jaunt from Salt Lake City to Seattle (of which we are still en route) we stopped at a spot in northern Oregon by the snake river. It was a really beautiful spot where the river was winding out of the mountains and continued its way down in to the valley of Oregon yokes-ville. After sitting in a van for 8 hours there's nothing like a beautiful park or some natural sight to supplement the breaks which are often spent at a flying-j, or some other random corporate consumer incubator. We all walked down the river and began the ancient and primal activity of.. throwing rocks. For lack of energy or anthropological knowledge I'll spare you my theory on this activity and its ability to connect us with our friends earlier on the evolutionary time-line (or the nothingness that existed if you believe that sort of thing). What I will say is this; Throwing rocks is legit. We sit in a van burning gas and playing I-Pods, a GPS unit with a British accent directing us through engineered roads while we pull a trailer filled with some of the most expensive electrical equipment around. This collection of materials and circumstance is pulled and rolled through every major metropolitan area in the US and the time not spent in a club is spent on every man made creation as far from nature as one can be for about 90% of the time. So when we find a beautiful river, and a stick in the mud 40 feet below us at the bank of the river, it is a beautiful contrast and a therapeutic activity to say the least... A bunch of grown ass dudes just throwing rocks. Go throw some rocks and get those creative juices flowing. Just don't sit out by the river at sun-down and get munched by mosquitoes like we did, thats the part thats NOT legit.

Why hello California, we're gonna hang out in a few days.

Show #21.

2008-08-07T23:51:00.000-07:00

An amazing show in Chicago tonight at The Metro. I cannot even express how lucky I feel to have people who are so down with what we do.. I can't even articulate it any better than that. For the past 3 weeks I've just been amazed every night at how much love we get. Its just overwhelming sometimes, and I just gotta enjoy every minute while it lasts. If you told me I'd even get this far when I was that 12 year old playing Nirvana songs in the mirror I think I'd have just about burst into flames. Thanks for keeping RX alive peoples. Thank you so much.

Thanks Jenny Choi for taking me to that great nheng-myun restaurant... and for those little coffee packets. Korea.

Heading west, bad tofu, spirit fingers and 90's indie rock.

2008-08-02T22:46:00.000-07:00

My new O.D.B shirt that I got in Philly.. I love it.

Who am I. Where am I. Oh yea, thats right..we're in Rochester, New York at the Water Street Music Hall and I'm sitting backstage wondering why on earth this chinese restaurant we ordered food from had to fry the tofu until it tasted like wads of paper towels. A Disgrace! Tofu is wonderful stuff.. this is why the steak eaters and whiteys get turned off of tofu!

This next segment you're getting from our hotel room in Cleveland, staying true to the nature of tour, you're getting one blog from more than one city. We played the Grog shop tonight and although Cleveland is one of those cities, in one of those places where we as a band just aren't as big out here..it was still a good show. We graciously take our slice of the humble pie especially after our northeast cranial inflation session of sold out shows. I even played through even MORE spirit fingers which have been following me. You're probably wondering what the hell I'm talking about..so I shall elaborate.

Now let me just say that I don't for any goddamn second take for granted the fact that not only do I get to play music and travel the world in a real band, but there are people out there who actually like the music I write and that we play. However, as any normal person would, once you become familiar enough with something that you've been doing for a solid ten years, you build a real relationship with it and develop those things you love and strongly dislike about it. One of the very few things that I really dislike are the 'spirit fingers'. This is when people in the front row who are obviously excited, and obviously giving my jerk-ass props frantically thrust their hands toward my face and wave there fingers at me like angry anemones in a turbulent sea. People at basketball games do this with those plastic thingy's to distract whoever is shooting a free-throw.. Other animals in the wild use similar tactics to distract and stun their prey before devouring them. Although I'm sure that people who come to our shows have no motive towards any of those things, the effect is the same. Its gotten so bad that the whole band is starting to notice it, and no one else gets it but me! Is this a conspiracy towards my slow yet inevitable lunacy? Its been happening in cities across the country.. and its beginning to creep us all out. I know I sound like an ingrate but hey, what is this blog for if not to release my true feelings and thoughts. I'm starting to get nervous about facing the audience now when I have a shred part to play, and during the breakdown of 'Decrescendo' I've started to just go back to the drum riser during my solo part. Matt warned me about writing about this, for good reason thinking that it will just encourage people to 'Spirit finger' me even harder, but implore any of you who read this that come to our shows; if you don't wanna see me implode and supernova onstage then please, PLEASE, no more spirit fingers. I seriously appreciate that anyone would get stoked on my mediocre skills on the guitar, but I really can't hang with the spirit fingers or people yelling creepy shit at the top of their lungs about us when we walk on stage.
"dude, it comes with the territory, you're in a band and people like you so just shut up and appreciate the fact that people like you and are even there to yell at you and spirit finger you" oh yeah? Well anyone that thinks that can shove it up their ass because although I'm on stage and people are coming to watch my band play, we're all equals all the time and so if I don't like something and I don't feel like I'm being treated like an equal whether being put on a pedestal or beneath someone, I'm gonna say something about it. Man, I'm being sassy.

I need to kick back, and relax now.. shower and stretch time before checking out some sportscenter dork style to see whats up with baseball that I don't get to watch because I'm on tour. At least I don't have to regularly watch my Oakland A's get the beatdown while they rebuild for the next 2 seasons. Matt and I did an acoustic set and interview session at Alternative Press today while were in Cleveland, and I was talking with Mr. Scott Heisel who did the interview about all these great 90's indie bands we loved so much and it got me all pumped up on so many records. For all of you who don't know whats up with merge, crank, jade tree, and polyvinyl who are just a few labels from that time period then check some of this out..these are records I really really love. And for those of you who are too cool for school and scoff at this stuff because you "..heard it before anyone else did waaaaaaay back in the day, and kinda just are over it" shut up.

1. Crank records 'Don't Forget To Breathe' compilation - this comp has everyone from mineral, to hot water music to christie front drive and in large part epitomizes what this was all about. so many sick songs.

2. Promise Ring 'Nothing feels good' - 'nuff said

3. Archers of Loaf 'Vee Vee' - if you don't know then keep not knowing or get with the know

4. Knapsack 'Day three of my new life' - again, get with it or beat it.

5. Jimmy Eat World 'Static Prevails' - "they had music before 'Bleed Amercian'??" I'll fight someone

6. Neutral Milk Hotel 'In the Aeroplane over the sea' - this is some honest music.

7. Braid 'Frame and canvas' - you can't write drum parts like these.. no one else can.

8. No knife 'Hit man dreams' AND 'Fire in the City of the Automatons' - rx KINDA borrows some of No Knifes steez.. but just kinda..a little.. ok maybe a lot.

9. Superchunk - any superchunk.. just check it.

and list goes on and on.

Goodnight.

p.s. The studio we did our acoustic session in had and SSL console that got me hot and bothered.. the fact that it was repping 4 HD's and og 1176's and LA2A's among other stuff and only was 65 bucks an hour blew my mind.. fuckin Ohio man.

Ottobar, You almost killed me.

2008-07-29T22:07:00.000-07:00

It must have been at least 105 degrees on stage tonight.. Next time you practice with your band literally try it in a sauna so you can prepare yourself for what its like if you're gonna play the Ottobar in the summer when its packed. I was exchanging looks of fatigue and boiled excitement with people all night as they stared at us on stage like we were hypnotizing them.. and I don't mean that in a way thats giving ourselves props..

I'm still a little bit dizzy right now.. I'm laying on the bed at our hotel trying to hydrate myself after tonights show in Baltimore. Those of you who might have been there definitely know what I'm talking about, and for those who couldn't get in I'm sorry, we'll try and play a bigger place next time but until then you can all just roll out to Philly tomorrow. We narrowly dodged bursting into flames tonight.. At the end of Decrescendo tonight I started to see stars and flashes of light, but I managed to stay on my feet.

I'm gonna get some new kicks tomorrow in philly. belee dat. And now I shall shower and more importantly rest so that we can play a good show for all of you at the TLA.
Peace out foos.

11 in a row..

2008-07-27T16:00:00.000-07:00

.. And tonight is our show in Wilmington, NC which will be the 11th and last show of our "lets wreck ourselves through the south" run of our tour before our much needed day off tomorrow where we can repair ourselves and actually get a legit amount of sleep. Hi, my name is Steve Choi and I play guitar and other stuff in a band called RX HAGGARDS.

The other night in Ft. Lauderdale Sheets took a healthy spill on some spill on stage and wrecked his knee.. He went down and I expected him to get right back up but as we were playing the end of consequential he just lay there holding his knee with his face in the stage and I saw the tour coming to an end and a bone sticking out of his knee.. Luckily neither of those things happened, but it scared us all shitless. He got up, finished the set but he's hurtin. No broken bones, so that's a good thing.

I need to do laundry, I need some real mexican food, I need some sleep and I need a massage. Now I need to shut up and go soundcheck. Upper east coast I cannot wait to rock into your chaotic yet comforting embrace. All of you in the Philly/Jersey urrea.. Bring your people to the show.. We're ready to finally sell out the TLA goddamnit.

Show 3: Houston, Texas.

2008-07-20T15:20:00.000-07:00

I'm not gonna lie..I'm not a fan of Texas, but cool people and places are everywhere and there are those opposites which maintain the balance of the big swirl of planets and emptiness which we call the universe. Due to the breakdown of the van which many of you may know about, we got to START our tour in Texas this time.. and I gotta say; it's been pretty awesome. San Antonio, Austin and Dallas were all sick shows for us (sorry to the kid I hit in the head with my guitar in Dallas, I felt really bad when I got off stage). All of you in Texas, thanks so much for starting our tour off right for us, it means the world. State of Texas, thanks for.. um.. nothing I guess.

I'm pretty haggard right now. We hung out with Portugal over at R. Ballings house last night staying up way too late inflicting the party on each other. Frozen pizza and beer what. When I walked downstairs there were a bunch of heads laid out sardine style in front of the tube and C-gaks feet were about 2 inches from Zach from Portugals open sleeping mouth, and other heads looked like they were dead from the fight they had with their blanket and lost. This sound guy at the Meridian here in Houston is a prick.. I think he needs to get laid or beat up... can't tell which one. I'm sitting here before soundcheck watching this jerk huff and puff his way around the joint whenever our sound engineer is asking him for anything.

My brain is mush right now, I apologize for the highschool-diary style post, I'm just kinda regurgitating the past week and what I'm observing right now.. when I get a chill moment I'll try and come up with something worth reading yall. See, now I'm even typing yokel talk. We're headed to New Orleans tomorrow, we're always stoked to get there. Heat Rash Power!

*Go listen to the 'Singles' soundtrack, the 'Angus' soundtrack, the 'Edward Scissor Hands' soundtrack is soooooo ill, and the 'Mallrats' soundtrack isn't bad, its even got the well recorded version of 'Web in Front' which is one of the best Archers of Loaf songs ya hurd. Its all about the soundtracks right now. Go rep em.

** To the kid who left a comment on the RX myspace about begging us to "please sign to a major label" because our van brokedown and who also promised that "only good things will come of it"; if you were being sarcastic then cool, that's kinda funny I guess. But if you were serious which I think you were, then dude; I appreciate you being into our band but get a fucking clue. If you think that's what we or any band in the music caca biz needs right now then you have no idea what you're talking about so go prog on your friends band and get em signed so they can be bought onto tours by the label and they can pull up to the 100 capacity club in their tour bus where only 20 people will show up. Maybe you can get them up on the sign in page of myspace and make 50,000 postcards for the bands debut album that we tear up and roll into the ends of our joints and a van and trailer wrapped with Monster Energy drink logos. Bye bye.

Tour: Day 1

2008-07-14T23:56:00.000-07:00

Sitting in a hotel in Blythe, California. Roger is sitting next to me and c-gak and I are having a discussion about how his pack of camels changed the art on the box to the same custom arrangement of his 'Still life with Woodpecker' Tattoo. Why are we here? Well on our way to Tucson where we're supposed to be playing, our van broke down on the Interstate 10 4 hours from home in the little town I mentioned at the beginning; Blythe. Ah tour. I hope we make it to the show tomorrow. This is our first van tour in 2 years.. The tour spirits are punishing us for being spoiled and neglecting the van while we toured in buses.

Bye Bye Bed

2008-07-13T22:58:00.001-07:00

I'm packing up while importing some of my old school cd's right now. We're heading out to Tucson, AZ tomorrow and our first show is on tues at the Rialto. We're taking a flip-cam out with us on this tour for some tour footage and video blogs, so I'll post links to em up on here as soon as we start. I'll also be back on a sunny caffeinated morning to fill all yall muffuggers on whats been happening on the road because I'm so over writing how hectic things are lately and its boring as shit. I've been doing all kinds of errands and editing more drums and bla bla bla bla bbbb llll aaaa. Enjoy your homes and rooms and bathrooms and kitchens all of you, I'm gonna be spending my next six weeks on the road... again.

Whaaat. I'm not complaining.. Music I love, performance I love, seeing all my friends across the country, visiting my favorite cities I love.. Its just all the getting to those places and shit in between I hate.

Peoples who have cruisers, bring some down and lets go for a ride before the show. Or if you have a Benotto racing bike or a nice Giant 55 cm top bar then those will do also. peace out.