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Chad's Europa Update #6
Mon 18 Mar
ABT continues! We spent a few hours with the org Viva Con Agua in Hamburg. They work to give people all over the world access to clean water. The task was to stencil SR logos and VCA logos on waste bins that they use at festivals to collect money from the bottle returns.

Later, I walked around a bit after sound check. Found this music shop that sold Paul McCartney his first Hofner (violin shaped) bass. Klaus, a man in his 60s, said his father sold it to Paul when the Beetles and Fats Domino all lived upstairs in the musician flats on the second floor.

Our opening band Mallius kicked serious ass tonight. Maddog said to the drummer, you sound like Taylor Hawkins and the kid said, "please say Dave Grohl." After show we went to one of my favorite bars of all time called Rosi's Bar on the Reaperbahm (the red light district/street of Hamburg named and created originally by the sailors who came into port and would braid their ropes down this one long wide street). The music wasn't the soul 45 vinyl I was looking for. But it DID start as salsa then switched to 90s hip hop. Not too shabby. Debruyn and I hightailed it back to the van for 3AM departure to Berlin. Another great city -- met up with Amnesty International for a write-a-thon there. Great people -- and a story about a Kimberly Rivera who's currently in prison for doing exactly what Camilo did - refusing to return to Iraq.

For my birthday, my parents gave me some money to find a cuckoo clock in Germany. I guess they were looking in the States and most clocks were made near the Black Forest anyway so they figured I could find one over here. So...I bought a bass guitar. I will call him "cuckoo". It's an East German made bass from the late 60s. As Embree would say, it's the buttery butters! Some Israeli kids were in there and bought a bass just before I got this one and they said in Israel a similar bass would be priced at three times as much. The music store was tiny and jammed to the gills with reel to reel tape contraptions, farfisas, fun machines, sitars and accordions strewn all about with 60s and 70s guitars hung from every inch of the ceiling. And filled with cigarette smoke of the owner and his loyal friend who sat like mystical statues in a china shoppe.

Then had dinner with ABT -- such a great group of people - I'll miss them. Ilana and Megan did a great job leading the crew.

Sitting next to this middle-aged business guy now on the plane who was chatting up the flight attendant. He looks like my buddy Fike from highschool. When the attendant was out of ear shot he says to me--"I wouldn't mind inspecting her thingy thing... just sayin." This coming from a guy who says he has a special ability to strike up a conversation with virtually anyone. AND he's seen 45 Aerosmith shows! At one point, he was talking at full stride and then nodded off in the middle of a sentence (a few beers deep). Reminds of me of talking to my brother Willy up in the loft at night when he'd be talking about something and then I'd ask him a question and he'd be fast asleep.

Wait a minute, Fike left his seat about an hour ago and he's still gone.

Berlin show was so much fun - killer crowd - felt like a real throw down. Even had a light show solo by...you guessed it...Mathew B Wilhelm. Crowd went nuts for it! On the day off Matt went on a mission to find his ancestors' famous Wilhelm organ in a church in Kestle. Unfortunately, they had changed the old pipe organ out about 5 years back but he did find the little house where relatives of his lived for decades while they were keepers of a bronze statue of Hercules that stood 60 feet in the air.

Our flights were early this morning so we just stayed up. At one point, our backstage area was closing so I ran in and took a shower and after just put everything on inside out -- except my pants - felt like a new man - and I figured who ever was sitting next to me on the plane would appreciate it. It was a good tour - wonderful people and gentle souls. And now rushing back to my lady who's been bravely and graciously taking care of a one year old on her own while fully loaded with number two.

The bathrooms on this plane are downstairs. There's a crew door down there as well where I caught a glimpse of a hallway that took you deep into the crew's quarters - like a ship. Back up the stairs standing in the galley iI can over-shoulder-watch 30 movies at the same time - perfect for my a.d.d. tendencies.

Just listened to Animal Collective’s recent album - so good --- also in the Dada Bar in Zurich one Of Montreal's albums was playing and it kicked ass - at first I thought it was Flight of the Concords. Now listening to Grizzly Bear's shields... not sure... might be time to switch to Rihanna. Maybe first Neil Young's new album. I'm listening to Neil's first track now and I can't believe it's still going -- 20 minutes in...maybe it's on repeat? But really I'm in no rush for it to end. Never one to shy away from straight up lyrics - he's now singing about how he doesn't like MP3s and how he's gonna get a hip hop haircut. But 3rd song in he's singing about his life, his wife - his kids who are now grown and far away - "and every morning comes the sun and they both rise into the day.

Holding on to what they've done. She loves him so / she loves him so / she does what she has to." - later in the song she is replaced by "he". .. still no sign of my seat partner and his gifted tongue....no..could it be? Steven Tyler would be proud.

Now it's been an hour and 1/2 ! -- still nowhere to be seen and this plane is packed....fuck it...I'm gonna go find him.
Chad's Europa Update #5
Thu 14 Mar
We stopped at a rest stop.  Three in the morning.  Stars are out and Ondra is filling up the van while Ganger rolls a spliff.  The road to Hamburg  is clear.  Night woods flying by like a face that you can't quite recognize.  It's cold and getting colder but doesn't feel so bad at the moment.  The gig tonight hit a good stride and we felt like a band again.  Cologne was fun, but one of those gigs when you feel like you are falling down a curtain or a sail and your claws aren't long enough to fully stop you.  The crowd was great though and very smoothly carried me back to the stage after I jumped in.

After the show we went to get a drink with our three friends: Felix the traffic light juggler just out of circus school, Gurcem a sign language interpreter/actress who's heart was too big for her body and Arthur her agent/photographer.  We were wide eyed in this swanky joint full of hot escorts chatting up older men. Almost as out of place as when Debruyn, Maddog , ménage and I went into a fancy pharmacy to get MD's mom some european sunblock.  We diligently tried all the different face testers. In our black hoodies and clothes full of tour grime, I don't think anyone's ever seen a dirtier foursome sampling top shelf moisturizing products.  

Sadly, The Skints had to leave the tour because of bassists John getting sick.  Such a bummer / we miss them and hope for john's speedy recovery. We had to scramble and got these two dudes The Smigx to open up the show.  They were great guys.  

Hung backstage in Bochum 'til it was time to leave, talking about music in commercials and that experiment at Stanford in the 70s when a class was split up into guards and prisoners - and the guards started basically torturing the prisoners when not even a day had gone by.  

We wanted to go to this pirate bar run by a group of kids who came to the show but it was a drive away in the wrong direction.  We'll have to wait to sing our pirate songs on a later date.

Today we spent the morning outside at a community garden in Cologne constructing pallet boxes for planters with the ABTers and a guy named Dillek. They fed us pea soup for lunch.  Tasted like gold!  And I think Dillek may be the reincarnation of strider.

Tonight we played our first ever alphabetical set list at one of the oldest venues in Germany.  The food was delicious.  Now we back on the road listening to Chuck's iPod - Faith No More covering "War Pigs" and getting jiggy with a Johnny Greenwood score.

This van continues to be awesome.  Although the trailer is so small comparatively that Ondra can not see it in his mirrors.  So he just has to feel it back there and look for its shadow in the passing street lights.  Like any old manuel transmission diesel, when Ondra turns the engine off, it lets out a comforting death rattle - or like that of a horse's long sigh after a days trek.

Two things I forgot to mention from before.  In Frankfurt this woman was holding the American flag upside down during "Camilo."  And I thought - yes, the old symbol of protest that the native Americans, among others,  fly to communicate (years and years of) distress and oppression.  But then someone tapped her on the shoulder and told her it was upside down and she changed it.  Oh well...  And the last thing was that in the hotel in Cologne there was a light in the room that turned on when you touched  its base.  If you touched it again it got brighter, if you touched it again,, darkness.....cool.
Chad's Europa Update #4
Tue 12 Mar
I woke up this morning and told the fellas about a dream I had: I was lying next to Steven Tyler and we were poolside somewhere lounging on some beach chairs - the long kind. Naturally, he was naked...and hard. His dick was long and skinny and gnarled (a little twisty) - just what one would expect - and did Aerosmith's "whip out my big 10 inch" song justice (and then some). Here's where it gets a little odd, a third of the way up, there was a piece of surgical tubing wrapped around his shaft. "Like a scarf!" exclaims our sound engineer Nick Day - "yes!" I say. And in the dream I ask Steve why has that there..and he tells me something about keeping the blood down there... hmmm..

Anyways, in Frankfurt we got our first double encore of the tour. Thank you to that city. We almost had one in Munich but just as we were walking on the stage the house music came up and we did a quick about - face back to the dressing room. After the show in Frankfurt this kid came up to me and said how he much prefers the older reggae songs like “Camilo” and would I sign his t-shirt.

We've been having Amnesty International folks join us at the table to get people to garner support for the Arms Trade Treaty. Great to have them there. They've been gathering signatures and we are very happy to have them there and to help stop weapons from getting into the hands of human rights abusers. In the street before bed, Maddog and I did some partner yoga and hamstring stretches and then we got back on the van and we all flossed to Johnny Cash. A band that flosses together stays together.

Today we had a day off in Cologne. This guy in a bar made us a huge egg breakfast. We went to the gothic cathedral. It had new stained glass that emulated pixels. Maybe it's just me, but I think some things should never go digital - like stained glass in a church. The stairs to the top were closed.

We are sharing a room in a hotel on the outskirts the Chuck bed, the Chad bed and the wee Maddog bed. In the cellar there's a steam room.

Before suppertime, we steamed it up and then went into an infrared chamber -- Looks like a wooden sauna but shines red on you and there's a real hour glass on the wall. We then met our friends Christoph and Wolfgang and got some Syrian food (delicious!). I hope they are sending money home to the rebels.
Chad's Europa Update #3
Mon 11 Mar
Gig 5 done. We are more than half way through the tour. Here in Frankfurt they treat you like family. The venue is an old building next to the tracks and they say that after thirty years of concerts, the passing trains are slowly crumbling the building. So this may be the last time we play here. The place has soul. On the top floor is a kitchen replete with a large wooden table and swords with skeletons on them stabbed into the potted plants (props left over from a metal band years ago -- the swords that is, not the plants). Last night was Stuttgart. We had a couple of engagements before the show where were to play a few acoustic songs. The first one was at a skate shop. We got there and no one was there. They said they usually don't do these things during the day. The in store at Ratzer Records was much better. They fed us and made us coffee. On the walk back to the venue there was a demonstration in one of the squares. Students were putting on white togas. I asked someone who looked like he might speak English what they were protesting. He said "everything." I moved on to the flea market 'cause I was running low on time. I almost bought some sheepskin but then after communicating with the help of hand signals, I discerned that they had to kill the sheep to get the skin (makes sense right?). I got a mug instead. I went to check out the museum of modern art. I didn't have time to go in but I could climb the steps to the roof. From there you get a good view of the city and far below on the main promenade I could see some break dancers had put down some cardboard and had started amassing a crowd. Nothin like a birds eye view of some breakin.

Our show was good. They fit us in before the death metal disco. After the show, we went to a jazz club playing old soul tunes. Now we are all back in the van in a town next to Frankfurt listening to some merengue or bossa nova and bedding down. We push out at 5am. It's cold outside - a wet cold. As we head north they say it's below freezing. I met a woman today while I was looking for a graveyard who had 5 dogs. None of them had leashes they just cruised along side her. She said she hadn't spoken English in thirty years. On to Cologne.
Chad's Europa Update, #2
Sat 9 Mar
The van sits behind huge containers stacked on each other creating the boundaries of the complex we just played.

Welcome to Bavaria where Germany leans right and we've been pulled over every time we stay here. We pull out at 6 in the morning and someone is snoring, but I can't tell who. Last time we were here we stayed at a guy’s house just outside of the city. His name is Bone and he had a little woodstove. We huddled around it while some of us took part in his offering of opium laced weed - just what one needs to fall asleep. Tonight he offered me something before the show to help me relax. I asked him if the phrase “basket case” was familiar to him. Now Maddog poked his head out to try and subdue the sawing of the bear. To no avail - the soundtrack continues.

The show in Zurich was good fun. Crowd was great, but we weren't quite connecting and hitting the high points as a band. The Skints, our opener, is wicked good. In the summer time in Zurich, people swim in the river right in the middle if the city and jump off the bridges - some 50 ft high. We walked our friend Nick and his friends back to their car and learned about a squatters warehouse in Binz. The Government is shutting it down in May, but apparently it's a really great community with beautiful dwellings built into the side of the large shelter, a homemade carousels and constant art projects and music. There is a movement a foot to save it but as the 8 ball says - outlook not so good.

Tonight in Munich we played better and shorter and the crowd was everything we could asked for. I went to take a leak at the end of the night and fliers had covered the drain in the trough. The piss was just about to overflow - not a good scene. There was a DJ (named Marios) and he was playing modern reggae music so that was a good scene. Now the snoring has gone quiet - I think Maddog threw a shoe into the bunk of the perpetrator. The 7 of us going to bed at last with only the bass of the reggae making its way thru the walls of the complex and the walls of our van.
Chad's Europa Update, #1
Thu 7 Mar
Got off the plane early Monday morning to find the Austrian girls national foosball team in hotel. They all had these nice red jackets and I wouldn't want to come up against anyone if them in a bar. I went up the elevator and slipped into bed with Maddog. Around noon out friend ondra picked us up on the sleeper van circa 1978. I love vans and I've been dreaming about this van for a long time. But as we backed down the graffiti strewn sidewalk to the river we busted a flat. 

We limped to the venue and unloaded while ondra went to work. And as we loaded in, the power went out and then our opener cancelled. Our interviewer showed up and mentioned she played guitar. We asked her if she wanted to perform and she asked of she could have an hour to think about it. She'd never played in front of anyone before. Soon the power came back on. Most of the gear worked and we were off to the races. After soundcheck I crossed the river for some tea in this lit up green house that doubled as a bar. I ran back to the venue to catch the last song of our brave opener. Our tour managing merch guy joined her-- go Debruyn!!!

Crowd was great - thanku Vienna! Bouncers kicked us out soon after the show and wouldn't let anyone buy merch so we brought the table outside.

I met the guy who threw me his hat when Dispatch played in the crowd here last month.. He asked me for his hat back. Now sleeping in the dark cold van parked outside Holiday Inn Express outside of Zurich - I'm so camping!

We (the three of us and Debruyn and Nick Day) stood like high schoolers drinking beers in the darkness of the holiday inn parking lot well after midnight talking about whatever came to mind and listening for the next train to pass on the nearby tracks. The freights don't look hobo friendly here at all and they travel at light speed compared to the American counterpart.

Our historian friend Nick showed us around tonight. He took us to the first pub we played at years ago and then to where Dadaism was born - next door to where Lenin lived in 1916 plotting his Russian revolution. We had some absinthe while he talked about art destroying the bourgeois instead of war. I can see the silhouettes of the fellas in their hotel room as its the only light on in the whole building. After blessing jah via an Austrian apple it's a trippy site to behold. Ah, Maddog is knocking on the van. He is my camping partner tonight. We are more Tom Berenger and Danny Glover than Pam Anderson and Tommy Lee. Same difference I s'pose. On the plus side, Maddog's hair is looking nice - he looks like the child of Hank Azaria, Vinnie (from Doogie Howser, M.D.) and Boner from Growing Pains.
"Take Cover" Official Music Video Premiere
Tue 5 Mar
We just posted the brand new "Take Cover" music video on YouTube and Vimeo so you'll be one of the first people to see it.

Alternative Break Tour #8 Announced - Register Today
Fri 11 Jan
Want to go on tour with State Radio in Germany?

Register for the Calling All Crows Alternative Break Tour #8. You'll get to spend (March 12-16, 2013) traveling with the band and creating change through hands-on service and activism. It's open to everyone, even fans from the US, who are 21+.

Space is limited and the sign-up window is short so visit the ABT Registration page.

See you in Germany!
"Freckled Mary" Official Music Video
Mon 15 Oct
The "Freckled Mary" music video is finally here!! Huge THANK YOU to Collie Woods for directing and all of the State Radio fans who appeared in the video. Hope you like it!



P.S. The search for Freckled Mary begins tomorrow in Chapel Hill, NC!
"Freckled Mary" Live at the Moboogie Loft
Thu 4 Oct
‎MoBoogie just posted an awesome video of Chad performing "Freckled Mary" from Rabbit Inn Rebellion. Take a look: