Hey hey hey hey,

Only eight days ’til tour starts! We’re losing our minds about this one because we’re headed out with Murder by Death and William Elliott Whitmore for four-and-a-half freaking weeks of awesomeness that we probably just don’t deserve. (But we’re sure as hell going anyway!) We just added a kick-off date at Snug Harbor in Charlotte, NC on next Wednesday evening, the 22nd. I think that means we are officially hitting everywhere between Austin, Texas and Burlington, Vermont, and several places even our GPS can’t find. No matter where you live on this side of the Mississippi, we’re playing within 100 miles of you – put on your driving gloves and let’s make a night of it, shall we?

In the meantime, we’ve got some good stuff happening for us while we’re still sitting at home, yelling out all the answers to Jeopardy! before everyone can read the question. For starters, we have officially declared war on flabby triceps – Paste Magazine just named “Stop Rip and Roll” it’s 1 Fist Pump Anthem of 2008, and “Go For It” made number 19 on the same list. AWESOME! We’re the only band represented twice – now there’s no excuse for coming out and keeping your hands to yourself…b’lee dat!

Secondly, on our Myspace page (link at the top), you’ll see that the good folks at Baltimore’s Red Star KGB guerilla film crew came out and shot our homecoming show at the Ottobar last month, and we’ve got some tasty clips from that posted in “Sounds like” section. The fellas did an incredible job – I live with Zach for months at a time, and now even I’m frightened of him, thanks to their extreme close-ups. Does he really do that every night? Ye Gads! We’ve got the entire set filmed so maybe, if we get an injection of gumption, this will end up on a DVD in the future…?

The Red Star fellas are also hard at work shining up a video we shot for “Used to Did,” that should be available here real soon. Its gonna be something else – we’re talking green screens, spurs, death-defying hair flips and even a few Baltimore landmarks. It’ll be epic.

Lastly, we’ll have two dazzling new t-shirt designs on this tour, courtesy of B-more design house Squidfire, as well as some spiffy buttons and a new, honest-to-God repressing of “Hail Mega Boys.” We’ve been selling copies carved by our own toil and shaped by our own eight hands for the last few tours, but it was time to let the Big Boys do a proper version of it. If you’ve bought the album in the last year, the artwork is virtually unchanged. If you haven’t bought the album in a year or you downloaded it, then you’re just seriously missing out on the best artwork mankind has ever concieved, thanks to our friend Alex Fine.

Check out the tour dates and come on out and say hi. Or knit us some scarves because it is sure to be COLD in Michigan in late-November.

Over and out…

Steve