The kind folks at Amoeba Records gave the band gift certificates and goodies yesterday after we played an instore at their SF location, so I got to spend the afternoon today record shopping without spending a dime! Picked up an array of records: The Louvin Brothers, Def Leppard, Television, and The Yardbirds. Good stuff. Also, I busted MRA out of work really early today so we spent the afternoon walking around and chatting and generally enjoying the California sun. Good times.

My cousin is doing pretty well on the Dodgers these days. I'm very proud of him, even though I kinda hate the Dodgers. Still, any team that fields a blood relative of mine is good in my book, and I wish him the best this season.

Our Los Angeles trip this weekend has been postponed/cancelled, but we're going to Santa Cruz instead. Woot!

So, I think I'm suffering a mighty release-date hangover. Our record is now out, the newish website is now mostly functioning, the CD release shows are done, a lot of the initial radio interviews and print press is finished, and I'm left at home wondering what kind of cat food I should get for the kitties.

Putting out a record is something I've always wanted to do, and now that it's done and finished I'm left wondering what will be next. Right now we're just practing and preparing for tour, buying equipment on ebay (i picked up a nice vintage flight case for my larger keyboard today), painting cases, securing van rentals, but until we leave on July 8th I'm feeling sort of useless.

The one thing I am/was looking forward to was a 5-day vacation to Southern California with MRA, in which we were to rent a car with A/C and explore the backroads of Central California on our way to Los Angeles, making iPod mixes, visiting truckstops and drinking beers with non-Oaklanders. Now it seems that this might not happen do to the COMPLETE INSANE PRICE OF RENTING A CAR! It's not really even the base-price that's killing me, but the amount it costs to insure a crappy rental car. Egat! So, I'm using my brain and trying to devise some sort of alterna-plan so that we can see friends down south and still be able to make rent next month.

When I first realized that it might cost too much to drive somewhere, I instantly started having a bad day. I went to get cat food and a Father's Day card but forgot to grab change off my dresser, so after I found a parking space I couldn't pay the meter and ended up driving home, frustrated and hot. I grabbed some change and returned to the store, and then went across the street to the newstand to see how bad AP burned our record, but they didn't have it in stock. While I was standing there I felt a werid tingle on my arm and looked down to realize that the right side of my body was covered with dozens of ants. After I finished frantically brushing them off I realized that everyone working in the store were looking at me like I was a demented weirdo covered in "bugs" so I took off before they started whispering.

Then I headed up to Berkeley to get a card for my dad and possible a freshly blended juice drink to improve my mood and ended up getting stuck in non-moving traffic for over 15 minutes. When I finally got to where the store was I drove around for another 15 minutes and couldn't find parking. Of course it seemed that every car around me was finding a spot or stealing one I had my eye on, so I grumbled, made a U-turn, and just came home.

While driving home I realized how funny moods are, how quick they can change and how they're impossible to explain or predict. It's funny how after receiving a nugget of bad news (ie: renting a car was going to cost twice what I was hoping it would) it seemed that nothing I tried to do would work. Why does that always happen?

Once I got home I busied myself petting kitties, put on a Steely Dan record (yeah, uh huh, that's right), and started to change my mood little by little.

What a bombastic self-made 3 day weekend we had. On Friday Communiqué played the big BFD festival that's put on every year by the big alt-rock radio station in San Francisco. Although we headlined the smaller stage, it's still cool to say that we've kinda/sorta played with The Strokes, The Killers, The Stills, The Fire Theft, The Streets, The Rapture, and The Violent Femmes among others. I only got to see complete sets by the Fire Theft (great) and The Killers (from the stage!), but heard songs by others. The Killers were great, and I still have the image of this girl in the front row dancing all crazy like singing along to "Mr. Brightside" burned into my head. Good times all around.

Saturday was almost crazier, if that's possible. A 4-hour Oakland A's baseball game in the sun preceded by a beer festival at the ballpark started the afternoon, and we ended up drinking beer in the pool while playing a rather tame game of 3 flies up. I realized when I got in the pool that I had given myself a nasty sunburn on my chest where the top couple buttons of my shirt were undone, so now I'm sporting this nice, red triangle of color in the middle of my torso. After pool time we got some dinner then headed back to the neighborhood for a close and talented game of charades, and then somehow after that we ended up drinking stale wine in the vacant lot next to our house. Crazy fun times, although I was definitely feeling a little, uh, delicate for a couple radio interviews we had yesterday.

Now that summer is here I've realized how I love this town when it's light outside forever and there's enough fun, cheap stuff to do in our neighborhood to fill the days. Being happy enough to live for the weekend is a great feeling.

I'll stop talking about it now, but Poison Arrows is officially out tomorrow. While you're at the record store you can also pick up the excellent new EP by the Court & Spark. Although the Killers were great on Friday, some of their album is lacking. Still, Hot Fuss is worth it for "Jeny Was A Friend Of Mine," "Mr. Brightside," "Somebody Told Me," and "On Top." I guess iTunes can be your friend for those songs.

New MP3 of the week. Yeah yeah, I know I know, just listen to it.