The Official Blog of Haircut

Mt. Whitney - Oh Yeah

2010-09-17T21:09:00.000-07:00

Since I was about 15 years old I had wanted to summit Mt. Whitney - the highest elevation in the contiguous U.S. at 14,497 ft. and this past week our new Sax player Ryan and I made it happen...

We started our trek on Sunday camping at the Whitney Portal campground, where black bears were running through our campsite trying to get our leftover pizza. Luckily Ryan fended them off with his shear size and grit. Monday morning we scored a fre

e pass at the Ranger Station and WAG Bags (Bags you get to poo in and then carry out.... fun!) and a bear can to store our massive amount of food. Of course we packed way too much stuff and my pack ended up weighing 68 pounds, but we headed out Monday morning ready to power through the thousands of feet of elevation gain regardless of anything.

We got to Trail Camp and chilled for the first day. Next day we made it to the summit with merely day-packs and fortitude in our guts and one Natural Light Premium Lager. The climb wasn't too hard actually (there were 72 year old gr

andmas doing it) and the view was amazing... Sequoia, Kings Canyon, all the way to Nevada... it was so sweet that I had to bust into my Speedo and slam a Natty Light (see picture).

Next day we climbed Wotan's Throne (a peak near Trail Camp at 12,700 ft.), which was sweet since there was no trail and we had to do some rock climbing and scrambling to get to the top, and then I went for a 5 second dip in the freezing cold Consultation Lake and sunbathed in the nude with only the 1,000 foot granite faces looking down at

me, and Google Earth satellite cameras.

All in all... just what I had anticipated except for mice, marmots, and chipmunks attacking our food every waking moment... but I highly recommend the trip - hopefully I'll take the Mountaineer's route and don merely the Speedo next time for a more extre

me operation.

Here are some sweet photos courtesy of Ryan:

Ryan and Me at the summit of Mt. Whitney (we give it 3 thumbs up apparently).

Epic shot of me atop Wotan's Throne.

Me waiting for a Teradactyl to scoop me up.

The view was so amazing that my clothes exploded off and a Natty Light appeared.

This Blog brought to you by Action Wipes - the right choice for any extreme activity above 14,000 feet.

The Turning Point

2010-05-02T12:32:00.000-07:00

The farthest North-East that this tour was going is now behind us as we leave Concord, New Hampshire for Chicago, Illinois. It's a 2-day drive, 13 hours today and 6 tomorrow to hopefully make it in time for a little website interview before we play at Reggie's Music Joint. By this point in the tour, 72 days on the road, I've become proficient at continuously repairing the R.V., as is has rattled almost 12,000 miles across the U.S. Highway system through 23 states. I've also become used to wearing my underwear and socks inside-out for a few days at a time, eating everything from Top Ramen to Leg of Lamb, and having different hours of sleep every single night. We hadn't been on a road trip this long before, and we didn't really know what 8 people in a 27 foot motor-home for 4 months meant. It really is close quarters, squeezing past each other to get from the front to the back, sleeping, cooking, trying to keep things clean. But we are doing pretty well and it is working out, and we have learned a lot already, and seen a lot already.

Sometimes we go for 5 nights in a row - play, pack up, sleep for 3-6 hours, drive for 3-8 hours, set up, and play again. Then we get a couple days to chill and check out the city that we're in and try to regain our sanity - sometimes it works. The shows for the most part have been sweet - the audience and venues being cool, but the sound usually sucking (at least to us). The venues with good sound have been pretty few and far between, so when we show up and there is a legitimate sound system and an in-house sound guy we're totally stoked. The tour is kind of a job and a vacation at the same time. The job part being everything aside from actually playing music, and the vacation being hanging out with friends and relatives and sight-seeing. (Photo: Us at Gettysburg, PA on the tour)

This was my first time visiting pretty much anything east of Arizona, and seeing this much of the country in this amount of time has been amazing, especially the east coast. Highlights have been New Orleans, Savannah, Charleston, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Gettysburg, Boston, and New York City. New York takes the lead for me -I had never seen so many skyscrapers in one location, so much to do and see, and such a fantastic world that is NYC. We were just there for 3 days too, and I only traveled by foot in Manhattan, so I only saw a small fraction of the whole city. We were fortunate enough to stay with Nick's aunt and uncle, who just so happen to live in an old Vanderbilt house on 5th avenue and 80th, one block from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Central Park. It was an amazing time. Woodstock, NY was also amazing, beautiful country out there, and a nice little theater that we played at. (Photo: Playing at the Local 269 in Manhattan)

So, I'll leave with one last photo of me at the Reflecting Pool in Washington DC...

Louisiana, Alabama, & Florida

2010-04-14T10:25:00.000-07:00

This Blog is a little outdated, due to lack of internet and time, but it's cool...

So we’ve made it! From the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic, just 2 days ago landed in Jacksonville Beach Florida, ran into the ocean and body surfed in my American Flag speedo, and then played at a place called Jamrock. We’re now camping at a state park in Keystone Heights, FL – T-Bone and Pablo just came back from fishing, and we just got done BBQing some chicken Fajitas.

The last couple of weeks have been sweet – most notably our week-long stay in New Orleans. We got in on Thursday, and met our contact, Maria, for dinner with her friend Lee, the guy who lives with his two daughters in the place below the apartment that we were renting. Little did we know that our managers Korie and Todd were flying out to meet us and party around New Orleans until Tuesday Morning. So we went down to Burbon st. watching jazz and drinking adult beverages, played a few gigs, and hosted a crawfish boil – 320 pounds of crawfish, shrimp, and oysters, huge boxes of onions, garlic, oranges, lemons, and potatoes, and 3 kegs of beer. Lee did not mess around – he knew how to throw a house party.

After a great feast that couldn’t be beat, another 5-course dinner, and a huge breakfast, we parted ways with Maria and Lee to head out for Alabama. We stopped by a place called ‘The Shed’ to drop off some CDs and eat some food, and ended up playing a show that was really fun. Florida was pretty sweet too, great temperature & good shows. Now it’s on to Georgia…

Rocking Fresh Island Jams at the Cabana Beach Pool Party, FL

Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas

2010-03-21T12:38:00.000-07:00

Now I feel like I’m on tour… played to a totally new crowd in Tempe, Arizona, stayed in Tucson, and charged through the desert through New Mexico and now we’re in Texas. We’ve played the west coast a couple times already, but this is totally new to me. While Google mapping our route to Texas, I noticed a large white spot in New Mexico and wondered “What the heck is that,” turns out it is White Sand, a big ‘ol State Park with miles and miles of pure white sand dunes. So we decided to stop by, buy some sleds, I waxed up my skateboard deck, and go sledding down the dunes. We also barbecued under a big sheet metal cabana which I stuck my OrigAudio Rock-It to, listened to Mexicali Brass with a tank top, sombrero, and Natty Light in a bottle. We were marinating pretty hard. Later that day we drove through the mountains and stopped to sled on the snow – I was still wearing sandals and a tank top, skating my bare skateboard deck down the sled run. Then on to Texas...

Texas has by far been the coolest experience yet: St. Patty's day show, Shotgun Shooting, Taxidermy, Strapping an Armadillo too the grill of our Motorhome, and South By Southwest.

We were greeted with a box of doughnuts and a free hotel by the radio station guys that were promoting our San Angelo shows on the morning of St. Patty's day. We played the show that night at Fiddlestrings Irish Pub to an awesome Texan crowd and I ended up getting duct taped to 2 girls at the end of the night... Wake up the next morning to BBQ, Beer, and Blasting Shotguns at the ranch home of one of the radio station guys. So this ranch has on it a church, a skeet shooter, and a taxidermy shop. Awesome. It was at that very moment that I knew I was in Texas, that and everyone saying y'all constantly. On the way out of the ranch we found a dried-up armadillo on the side of the road, and T-Bone and I decided that we needed to strap it to the grill of our Motorhome for South By Southwest (SXSW). And so we did.

After getting 2 hours of sleep Pablo and I made the drive from San Angelo to Austin, passing Kickapoo Creek and Electric Avenue, and setting up for 2 days of SXSW. The second day at Flamingo Cantina was our best Texas show I think, packed with true music fans and good sound. Aside from the thousands of people at SXSW and awesome venues (Austin being the live music capitol of the world), we were also fortunate to meet some famous musicians. T-Bone met up with John Popper (from Blues Traveler), whom he had jammed with in the past, Nick met Ben Kweller and a bunch of us met Chris Walla (guitarist from Death Cab for Cutie). It was quite surreal to see Chris Walla (who I really admire as a guitarist, producer, and overall musician) at a concert that I was playing at. It turns out that the band that played after us, The Lonely Forest, is signed to his record label, and he was there to check them out. So now we have a couple days rest before our show in San Antonio...check back in a few more days.

BBQing at White Sands

Skating White Sands

Here I am shredding the White Sand casually

National Tour Extravaganza!

2010-03-01T14:30:00.001-08:00

Well, it has been a while since I've put in a blog post, but only because we've been incredibly busy getting ready for our tour (which we are almost a week into). I have managed to sneek in some time now at 4:30am on the way to Seattle. So, since we are a do-it-yourself band, doing all the business that a record company would, we have each settled into our most natural side roles. I am a guitarist/ tech guy (Mr. Fix-it). Since the tour has started, I have repaired our trailer brakes, spent a day at the auto repair shop getting an electrical problem fixed, replaced a flat tire, & fixed a handful of other things that have fallen apart on our 40 foot RV and trailer rig.

I also managed to crash our rig into a snow bank on the 299 between Redding and Weaverville, which was a pretty gut-churning experience. I was coming back from the auto repair shop alone at night and it started to snow pretty hard. I stopped to put chains on & was driving about 20 miles per hour on the winding highway. Once I got to the top I figured I should put chains on the trailer too, pulled over, lost steering, and careened into a 4 foot snow bank, getting stuck and taking 15 minutes getting un-stuck. Eventually I made it back, where the rest of the guys were waiting with a Bud Light for me to pound. It was delicious.

So being not even a week into the tour, I just wonder what lies ahead. I'm hoping for some sleep...soon.

On the Road

2009-12-04T23:35:00.000-08:00

Well, we're actually taking a little break from touring for the Holiday season, but by the end of February we'll be on the longest tour yet - our first National Tour! We're planning it right now, with our path tenatively set from the Pacific Northwest down through California, then across the South to the East Coast, back across the Mid West & Rockies and back home - roughly 14,000 miles over 3 months. We are super busy preparing for this epic journey but also extremely excited... we know we have fans across the country, and this will be the first time that they can see us at a live show.

Speaking of being on the road, Nick and I took a little road bike trip to Santa Barbara for Thanksgiving. The first day we rode 104 miles from SLO to SB and it was a great trip, super scenic and perfect weather. The next day Nick stayed in SB and I continued to Moorpark, which was another 65 miles - nice along the coast, but a bit boring as I got inland. Overall it was sweet - definitely the longest bike trip we've taken.

There's barely a rest from being on the road, but we love it...keeps things fresh.

Halloween

2009-11-01T12:29:00.000-08:00

Last night was an epic sea of fog, hair, and face paint which comprised the most chaotic concert we've ever played. We were all there at Harlow's in Sacramento for our "Zombies of the 80's" Halloween Rockfest, dressed in ridiculous spandex with our faces painted like zombies and couldn't see past the first 3 people in front of us since there was so much fog. Well, it was fun, we made it home, and now we're watching the 49ers game, trying to recuperate.

And next weekend guess what - 2 shows of more 80's music at Downtown Brew in SLO! Those shows are the only thing that I think could top last night...we shall see. And after that I'm looking forward to a little Thanksgiving break - Nick and I are going to ride our road bikes down to Santa Barbara (probably in our zebra and lightning bolt print spandex) and then I'm going to continue down to good old Moorpark and eat lots of turkey & green bean casserole - yummy.

I've been procrastinating on my "It Might Get Loud" Blog post... I'll try and do that next time - with insight and depth and four-part harmony... but I gotta get back to the 49ers game now.

Squirrel Sloppy Joes

2009-10-24T20:26:00.000-07:00

Ah, another post on the old blog.

This one is about how we have a little thing called Iron Chef that we do. Pretty much, there are teams of two and every week or so one team cooks for the rest of the band with a budget of $30. There are 5 categories: Seafood, Poultry, Meat, Veggie & Extreme. So this past one, Nick and I decided to do extreme, but we played it off like we were doing chicken Sloppy Joes.

So, we went down to Nick's grandma's ranch in Santa Maria in the morning with his .257 deer hunting rifle to shoot some ground squirrels for the Sloppy Joes. This video pretty much sums up what we did. We didn't tell anyone that we were cooking up squirrel meat (which we mixed in with chicken), and after the meal was done, we showed them this video.... it was hilarious.

What did we do in class this week?

2009-09-27T22:16:00.000-07:00

A week in retrospect -

1. First band auto accident
2. Opening for Soulive & Ben Harper
3. Dirty Heads, what kind of program are you running?
4. Bud Light Indoboard Shotgunning, Sucka (BLISS) ... sorry, I had to do it

A little more detail -

1. Check out the video here
Basically some guy cut us off & we swerved all over the 280 until our trailer flipped.

2. Both the shows were amazing opening for those guys, especially West Beach w/ Ben Harper. First time I had seen Soulive - just watching them soundcheck was enough inspiration to shred faces in a super-tight fashion.

3. First time seeing the Dirty Heads since we kicked their ass at flip cup. Unfortunately their tour manager dropped me to the ground when I dropped my guard for a split second. But honestly, they played the best set of Sunday @ West Beach... still gonna get even with them though.

4. Thanks to Sunny, Merideth & the rest of their crew for housing us in San Diego & serving up ice cold Bud Lights at 10am to be shotgunned atop their Indoboard. Much appreciated.

Next Blog: It Might Get Loud (Documentary with Jimmy Page, The Edge, & Jack White) - thoughts, feelings, touch

-H.C. Slater aka Chris Arntzen aka Haircut

Outside Lands!

2009-08-31T07:04:00.000-07:00

So, it's 7am Monday after Outside Lands weekend, and I'm up because I couldn't get back to sleep at 5am and the Mars Volta is still ringing through my head. This past weekend was awesome, from watching the Giants game on Wednesday night to watching Jack Black chuck his shirt and pants into the crowd at the end of the Tenacious D set!

So glad we made it to Outside Lands - highlights for me were Atmosphere, JJ Grey & Mofro, the Mars Volta, Tenacious D, and Brett Dennen. It was also sweet hangin' with some good friends, as well as meeting a lot of new people all stoked about music. Our shows in North Beach and Redwood City were sweet (minus the sound guys in Redwood City) as well, and I'm looking forward to the next outrageous gig in SF. But, I'm also looking forward to getting back to Cayucos, regaining sanity, surfing, and blasting my Hiwatt amp for a while.

To close: I turn to my good friend Trent Kloppenburg, Captain of Extreme Affairs, and share with you this video:

http://www.acetj.com/videos/player.php?mediaID=3045

Acoustic Show @ DTB...

2009-08-02T22:24:00.000-07:00

So, this week we will continue our practice for the acoustic show coming up at Downtown Brew on Aug. 13th. We're really excited to throw down some new versions of songs that you all haven't heard yet... they're sounding pretty tasty. I think tonight we just came up with a theme for the show too (you know like the 80's show or the Scroty show), but I don't know if I can say what it is yet... we might be saving it for a surprise.

Anyway, some honorable mentionable thing that happened this past week:

1. Fireworks were unexpectedly shot off in the distance while we played "Don't Stop Believing" at a wedding on Saturday night.

2. T-Bone sent his first e-mail . . . in his life.

3. Kris Doe (the artist that painted the "See America" album cover) invited us all over for Cuban food at his new place (which was very tasty) and I super glued a mustache to my upper lip.

4. Pablo and I finished up the barn (where we live) and it's lookin' super fly (pictures next time).

Later - Haircut

The Journey to Thousand Island Lake

2009-07-13T14:49:00.000-07:00

I have been waiting to Blog about this trip for some time now, and can finally do it since Pablo furnished photos to me! A little preface: I haven't been backpacking in the Sierras since I was about 16 in the Boy Scouts when we took a 6-day, 36-mile trip along the Minaret Peaks on trails, off trails, over boulders, and across glaciers. It was the best outdoor experience of my life, and the last stop before we hiked back into civilization was Thousand Island Lake.

Once we got the gig at the Westin Monache in Mammoth, T-Bone and I vowed to make this backpacking trip happen, no matter what. John and Nick decided to go back home to Santa Rosa while the other 4 of us spent the next 4 days in the wilderness fishing. This was definetly the least prepared I have been on a backpacking trip, scrambling to pack our stuff, as well as drinking heavily the night before... neat.

So, It's Monday morning, 6am, and Nick drives us to the trail head at Agnew Meadows and wait for Dan and Pablo to meet up with us. We threw our gear out of the van in piles, hoping we didn't forget anything (which we did), and for the next 3 hours we load all the packs up and try to avoid getting eaten alive by mosquitos. Bone and I hike in a bit to get a scope of the trek, drinking Mammoth Brewing Co. High Country Pilsner at 9am, and the other 2 guys finally show up. Dan and Pablo have never been on a backpacking trip, and were only wearing running shoes, so they got the light packs and we proceeded to hike the trail.

Originally we wanted to get to Garnet Lake, and after about 5 miles we seemed to miss the fork (whick wasn't labeled, in our defence) and noticed the sun was getting low. After a bit of deliberation, we decided to continue hiking to Thousand Island Lake instead of turning back. Dan was spent, had a headache, and was just about ready to set up camp on the side of the mountain, but we pushed on, and finally got to the lake, with an awesome view of Banner Peak - that made it all worth it. We set up our camp quick-like, grubbed down and went to sleep at about 9pm.

The next 2 days were straight fishing, which was awesome. We caught Rainbows, Brooks, and some Golden-Rainbow hybrids (these are all types of trout), packed the fish in snow during the day and grilled them up for dinner. Master Chef T-Bone Steak prepared all kinds of tasty food, we had no bear incidents, and we caught some awesome scenery - a very nice trip. Here are some photos:

A Bristlecone Pine

Marination Station

Fishing with Banner Peak in the backgound

A cool Brook Trout

THE WHEEL

2009-07-02T22:08:00.000-07:00

So, for some reason we played in Fresno last Friday, and over the weekend we learned why - to have this band called The Wheel take over our lives.... haha. So here's how it went down:

We come out of the Sierra Wilderness (which I will blog about next w/ photos!) to Fresno, upon getting to the gig we learn that the promoter that got us on the bill also volunteered us to host The Wheel while they played a few gigs in SLO. We're all about having random people stay with us, as long as their name isn't Will Figg (our photographer that spent way too much time on our floor), so it was cool.

The Wheel is actually a really cool band from Denver, Colorado, you should check them out here:
http://www.myspace.com/thewheel
So, for the next few days they (all 6 of them, including their manager, Bart) slept on the practice room floor (right next to T-Bone), ate our food, and brought many a 30-pack of Tecate and handle o' Evan Williams whiskey. I took the singer and keyboard player surfing, almost killed them out there, and then BBQd with 'em.

Moral of the story is The Wheel is a cool band of fake cowboys & one fake cowgirl from Denver, Nate needs to cover his ass crack (probably about 1/2 the time he was in tighty whities with his butt hanging out), and you should go see them live.

I'm going to stop listening to Day Will Come and go drink beer & smoke my corn cob pipe in the spa.

-Haircut

This Summer.....

2009-06-18T23:04:00.000-07:00

We are going to Mammoth this weekend to play a show at the Westin (which is cool, mostly cause the rooms are sweet and there are free white robes), but the rest of the week we're gonna go backpacking and fishing in the Sierras! T-Bone and I will be leading the trip, we've already mapped out our route from the Minaret Summit road trail head, hiking 3 miles to Shadow Lake (where there are brook and rainbow trout), and hopefully getting to Garnet Lake (which is 5 miles from the trailhead). We'll be going with our trusty sidekicks Dan and Pablo... (John and Nick decided to go home to Santa Rosa for the week) and blazing trails through the Sierras. I am super amped to be chillin' out in the mountains, fishing, camping, making fires, floating around on a raft, digging holes to take dumps in, etc.

So our goal (our being me and Bone (the guys that have fishing licenses)) is to score a Sierra Grand Slam (which is catching a Brook, Rainbow, Golden, and Brown Trout all is one day in one location). And according to T-Bone the only place to do that in the world is in the San Joaquin River (right where we're going). It's gonna be awesome, the only downside is that there probably won't be many nice looking girls up there.... but we'll be back in SLO soon, ready for the Cliffs show on July 5th. $$$$$$$$$$

-Haircut

Bluegrass Bon Jovi

2009-06-07T13:01:00.000-07:00

This morning Nick, T-Bone and I learned Bon Jovi on acoustic guitar, slide guitar, & mandolin and we will be playing it on the streets in San Francisco. These next couple of days we will be chillin' in SF, jamming at the DeSoto house (probably for the last time :( because they are renting it out). But expect to see us on the streets downtown doing acoustic sets until security officers tell us to leave. We will see you on Thursday at Pier 23!

Day three - I can't flip my underwear anymore times...

2009-06-02T20:22:00.000-07:00

Oh hi there,

So, lots of people are asking "how's the band life," "how are you guys doing," and stuff like that - usually while I'm cracked out from not sleeping enough or after a show when I'm coming down from the hysteria of the show. These last three weeks have probably been the most demanding and strenuous in my life (as far as working, traveling, and depriving myself of sleep goes) - and I did spend 5 years in college.

This CD release has been such a blur - it seems like just yesterday we finished Mastering - that was the beginning of April. My sleep pattern has been roughly 4 hours, 5 hours, 3 hours, 12 hours, 4 hours, 3 hours, 12 hours... we wake up and go to the next city, play a show, party, sleep on a floor, repeat. Nothing is regular, not sleep, not diet, not exercise, nothing. In the past month, I've been in the VIP of the VIP section of a bar, where a man who just threw an extra $500 on the tab for no reason also just poured Kettle One Vodka down his pants. In the same 4 weeks I would be eating free hot dogs and pass out in a parking lot getting kicked awake by a security officer. Well, at least I'm not at a desk everyday of the week - there's something to be said for that.

I think it all culminated with our 4 day trip to Santa Barbara, then SLO, then Monterey, then Malibu. Pablo and I hadn't had a chance to get clean clothes, so for 3 days straight I wore no socks, the same pair of underwear, resorted to wearing Still Time t-shirts, and slept in the back of the van because it was more comfortable than the floor. Looking forward to Summer Tour though - HC Slater says "bring it on."

Here is a cool picture from Gonzales, CA by the Dairy Queen.

So Cal Tour Bonanza!

2009-05-17T16:17:00.000-07:00

Oh hi,

We're now chilling in Huntington Beach after our show last night at the OC Tavern...tonight we're on to Hollywood at the Hotel Cafe for a cool acoustic set. This is our first time on tour with Jill, our cool new employee who is also living with us out in Cayucos - she's been holding up pretty well on the road so far. This leg of the tour has offered a particularly funky/junky diet consisting of free appetizers & pizza & beer - actually last night I pulled off a classic manuver involving a piece of pizza, here it is:

We were eating our free pizza at the OC Tavern and there was one piece left, I tried to get Nick to somehow slip it into T-Bone's pants for $5, but he wouldn't go for it. Then Dan suggested that I hide it in my hat and pull it out during T-Bone's solo on "Old Soul" and start chomping it mid-set... so I did. Bone had no idea it was hiding in my trucker hat with some napkins. Once he started soloing I pulled it out, T-Bone looked up, saw me eating it and completely screwed up his solo, everyone busted up laughing - it was awesome.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to Tuesday's show - it's gonna be sweet.

Haircut

Barn Time

2009-04-15T23:44:00.000-07:00

So, for the past couple weeks I've been converting this barn into my future house. Today I just finished the 2nd coat of mud on the drywall... took me 12 hours. My wrist is soooo sore, hopefully it will work for our show tomorrow. Soon I'll post a short video of the whole project... well, once I'm done building the thing. But it's gonna be pretty pimp, Pablo & I are gonna live in it and to celebrate our move in, we've decided that we're going to sit on our mini deck in lawn chairs smoking our corn cob pipes, drinking tall cans of bud light, and shooting stuff with my BB Gun for a solid afternoon. Ahh, can't wait.

The Legend of the Faceless Pig

2009-03-03T23:14:00.000-08:00

So, the other day I'm helping T-Bone move out of his place, and it's the first time I've been to his place, which was the only lakefront property on Lake Lopez. Being so, it's got a lot of land with a lot of animals - horses, goats, a rasta sheep, & a some pigs. So T-Bone goes into another one of his stories - this one about the Mythical Faceless Pig. T-Bone doesn't have a blog, and is about as good with technology as Joaquin Phoenix is with HipHop, so I will tell his tale (concisely) for him. If you are sensitive to animal cruelty (or gore) you may not want to read this or watch the videos....

One day a couple of transient pitbulls come onto the property and attack one of the pigs, biting its ears off and mauling its face to shreds. The owner hears this and comes out of the house in her bathrobe with a shotgun (as any soon-to-be faceless pig owner should), blasts the pitbulls and throws their carcasses off a cliff. The pig runs away, hiding under a TeePee (also on the property) for a few months. During that time the pigs face gets infested with maggots as the flesh decays, but this actually helps the pig out since maggots eat away infected flesh (intentional placement of maggots in rotting wounds was also an old Army trick). So the pig lives on, all the while his face scabbs and rots.

His face has been irritating him for a long time, so one day he rubs it against a tree, shakes it around, flinging maggots into the air, and eventually rips it off his skull. So now the pig is truly faceless. The pig comes out of hiding and the owner contemplates shooting it to put it out of its misery. But, the owner has some emotional connection with it and at the last minute decides to let it live. Over time, the pigs face heals and grows skin & hair again... but it doesn't look pretty. Right now there are a few gaping holes still festering with maggots, huge scars everywhere, and his eyes are basically slits in scabs with mutilated eyeballs rolling around underneath. He definetly can't see very well or maybe not at all.

So, T-Bone finishes the story, and I must see this faceless pig, so we track it down and I'm able to shoot a couple videos on my cell phone, and here they are...

The Mythical Faceless Pig

Faceless Pig Dumps

Joshua Radin Concert

2009-02-21T00:02:00.000-08:00

Tonight I went down to Downtown Brew to see Meiko, who was opening for Joshua Radin. She was awesome - she's got a great voice and some nice tunes - check her out at www.myspace.com/meiko. I really enjoyed her set, and decided to stay and see Joshua's set, and witnessed something I have never before seen in my life. Two songs into his set he stops and asks that the audience be quiet (not too outrageous), but he waits around for about 5 minutes and starts talking to the front row, expecting a bar filled with about 350 people to be absolutely silent. I could see this maybe if you were Miles Davis or something, but I hardly feel that his musicianship warranted that kind of behavior, and besides, it's a bar... not an intimate theater setting. There are a lot of die hard fans there, so they start yelling at the rest of the crowd to shut up, people start getting pissed off, Joshua blindly remarks "If you hear a drunk frat guy talking, you can punch him in the gut." So the set continues, he plays a couple more songs, makes a few more remarks against "drunk frat guys," and all the while people in the front are yelling at the people in the back to shut up. Then he starts playing songs by himself without the microphone or his guitar plugged in. So the front row gets a concert and the rest of the crowd is pissed off. People start leaving and demanding their money back, and Joshua ends his set early and bitterly.
This guy made a bigger effort pissing the crowd off and playing air guitar than he did to actually play music (or write good songs for that matter). I give the show to Meiko and feel sorry that she has to open for a egotistical d-bag from New York.

-Haircut

Really Excited

2009-02-19T23:52:00.000-08:00

So today we got the rough mixes of the finished tracking for the WHOLE ALBUM, and I have to say, I might pee my pants. Not only that, but we have the design work for the album pretty much done - and it looks super sweet (thanks Ayer). With all this excitement, I come to remember when I was but a wee teenager, yet to grow my curly locks and acquire the title of Haircut. I remember being infatuated with this local band from Thousand Oaks called X-Cell Factor (they were really legit), and how I would yearn to hear new recordings from them and listen to them over and over. Now I'm on the other side of the glass so to speak, & working on the music kinda puts me in a different light, but I try to put myself in the listener's shoes. All those people who have no idea what this album will actually sound like when they throw it in their stereo and listen for the first time. I think that was a fragment. But, what I'm most anxious about is what we gotta do now. Mix. I wouldn't be so anxious if I hadn't made a phone call or two a few weeks back. But we shall see what happens. Sorry I'm being vague, but you'll know in a few weeks why.

-Haircut

Fresh Island Jam!

2009-02-17T22:49:00.000-08:00

Hey Boys & Girls, this is your Friends Haircut,

Some of you may have had the privilege of hearing Fresh Island Jam at one or more shows. Your welcome. For those of you who haven't, the Fresh Island Jam is Haircut's #1 hit single in foreign countries. Here are the lyrics with commentary:

We got the girls with the hula grass skirts - solid intro
Roasted pig and the fancy desserts - nice
We got sea turtles and tropical fish - pretty much just recapping my trip to Hawaii
Pineapple on a pizza is a tasty dish - I actually don't like that combo...get that pineapple out of here
When you're relaxing at the pool at the end of the day - that's when the cheesy cruise band always plays
There's just one thing that I gotta play - wait for it....

It is this Jam - oh yeah
The Fresh Island Jam - uh-huh
We got the Fresh Island Jam - oh do you?
Make it fresh man! - okay

We took a cruise from Hawaii to Barbados - that's quite a cruise
And played our jams fresh like Mentos - probably the best line of the song
Put your paper umbrella in your pina colada - that is a tasty bev
Take a slice of pineapple, mango and guava - here I'm blatantly just listing off tropical fruit

For this Jam - oh yeah, I was waiting for that chorus to come back around
The Fresh Island Jam - which Island Jam?
We got the Fresh Island Jam - oh right
Make it fresh man! - don't mind if I do...

And here is the secret 3rd verse that only some peoples have know:

When I go on vacation and see the nice ladies - I'm always doing this

I want to do the touch but not make any babies - Haircut cannot pay for more babies

And the girls come to me, make a touch on my hand - it feels so good

And say "Haircut, I want to hear the Fresh Island Jam!" - okay!

Movin' Out

2009-02-14T18:05:00.000-08:00

Oh Hi There,

So, a nice little opportunity came up for us - our managers Todd & Korie offered for us to move out to one of their properties in Cayucos, so I'm going to be moving out there with a couple of the guys in the next couple months. The 3 acre place has a Yurt (Mongolian Tent), a Barn, and a Converted Chicken Coop (all of which are nice and quite livable on the inside). So, I'm gonna have to say bye to SLO Town living and hi to a sweet pad with ocean view, gardens, hot tub, & surfing right down the street. Living in a barn or tent will be pretty cool though I think (literally too). My good friend Gelb used to live in a converted shed out in Cayucos & she said it was pretty chill, so I'm gonna trust her on it. Here's a picture of her & me post Breakfast Buzz when she visited from Washington earlier this week.

See America!

2009-02-13T12:54:00.000-08:00

The recording is almost done – about two more weeks to go! We’ve been busy in the studio almost everyday for the last month getting the tracks sounding super sweet and ready for your listening pleasure. We just finished recording Red Warrior (a Native American music group) for the ‘Rising From the Ashes’ track, as well as Kevin Wong (a shred-master pianist/ keyboardist) on many other tracks. It’s really awesome hearing the songs come together from the ideas that we had in our heads a few months ago to the present recordings. There’s even a lot that happened for the first time right in the studio that really surprised us and is pumping us for the final product. When we’re done it’s gonna be a lot of champagne, Natty Light, & gummi bears to celebrate.

Rocking in the New Year

2009-01-05T16:22:00.000-08:00

So, Once Again Still Time rocked the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco.
Well, minus an inopportune power failure, it rocked.

We started out strong, and then 2nd song in.... power went down! After a few MacGyver moves by H.C. Slater himself, we got stage power back on, but the main speakers weren't working. Alas, Still Time said 'the show must go on,' so Dan grabbed T-Bone's extra Harmonica microphone, John started pounding on the drums harder and harder, guitar amps were cranked to ear-bleeding levels, and we finished the show. Once again we brought in the New Year with our cheesy power ballad/ punk version of 'Old Lang Syne' while a drunk couple was sucking face right next to me onstage (very awkward).

On another note, after the mayhem of New Years, we got down to recording the first block of songs for our next album. We recorded in a dining room in San Francisco, which sounded awesome. We also wrote Kip (our recording engineer) a hokey bluegrass song for his 50th birthday (it's pretty sweet).

Here are some pictshotts:

The Georgian Room at the Westin before we played.

The dining room that we recorded in.

The living room with mixing console.

MacGyver For Good Measure.

Recording....YES

2008-12-08T00:41:00.001-08:00

Today we put in an extra long recording session at Downtown Brew. We tracked about 9 songs (I still can't keep track of them all yet, at least not at this hour) and let me tell YOU, they are tasty. Very stoked about this new album, were coming into it with much more forethought than the last album. I don't want to give away too much about it, but I will mention that T-Bone Steak is incorporated into almost every song....and not just in a regular bluesy harmonica way, but in crazy, interesting, & tantalizing ways. In addition to prominent harmonica, the album will also feature banjo, mandolin, upright bass, slide guitar, keys, violin, horns, and many new sounds. I am le tired, so I will leave you with this:
Please vote for us on the Jansport Battle of the Bands at www.jansportbattleofthebands.com so that we can play the Forecastle Festival in Louisville Kentucky!!

Photo: Old pic of us with Ziggy Marley...

Dew it Country Cool!

2008-11-04T17:14:00.001-08:00

Hey everyone, I know what you're thinking.... "Hey Haircut, howe com you haif not make a Blog in more thain two months?!?" Simply, it is because I have not found anything worthwhile to Blog about..... Until Now:

Dew It Country Cool!

-HC

2008-08-31T18:21:00.000-07:00

Hello there,

This is my last Blog of Summer Tour ’08 – we are heading to Wrightwood right now for our first legitimate music festival experience, which is also the last show of the tour. Overall, the tour was quite successful…almost all of our shows went very well, we made lots of new friends, and we finally got a dancing hula girl figurine for the dash of the van (very necessary). Also, since we have been back I’ve started dating again, which now makes Nick the last standing single man in the band, which also makes me wish I didn’t share a room with him.

I’d like to say goodbye to my good friend Trent Kloppenburg (who I’ve spent almost my entire college experience with), he had to move back to Seattle on Wednesday. We did however throw a surprise going away party for him which had an illegitimate wine and cheese theme (think boxed Franzia, Carlo Rossi, bacon flavored cheese whiz, & imitation Kraft singles – plus Nick & John in dress coats & ties with no pants on, smoking cigars).

Right now I’m watching the hula girl dance to Michael Franti.

- le Haircut

Photo: Our show at Grant & Green in SF, where it was soo hot that my shirt spontaneously combusted off of my body.

One more week

2008-08-14T00:23:00.000-07:00

One more week of being on the road non-stop for us right now. Had a nice couple of days in SLO Town to do laundry, see people, recollect my life, etc. We’ve played a sold out show in San Francisco, slept on some random girls couches in Monterey (after partying at Dennis the Menace Park), and kicked it with Eek A Mouse at the Catalyst after the show. Eek is quite the character – laughing, making obscene comments that we could barely understand. He did sign the show poster for us though…more like used it as a coloring book.

We’re currently on the way to yet another out-of-control house party in Isla Vista and then on to the L.A. area. It’ll be nice to have a few weeks break when we get back in SLO and a steady diet (right now it’s mostly consisting of apples, slices of bread and mixed nuts). Well, were almost to I.V. Later – H.C.

P.S. this shot is from when we jammed in a boxcar in Oregon. neato.

Oregon is Chill

2008-08-07T10:38:00.000-07:00

I have to say, even though we only played two shows in Oregon, it was my favorite state to drive through... The forests and rivers are awesome, the cities are also cool. We stopped in Portland, Eugene, Rockaway Beach, and Seaside, visiting friends and hanging out. Upon entering Oregon, we stopped by an abandoned shack next to the Rouge river and cooked some dinner while T-Bone fished. We've cooked hot dogs and spaghetti on railroad tracks and jammed in an abandoned boxcar in Garibaldi & camped out in Seaside. Here's a little photo montage of Oregon that I put together (real pictures from our trip will be on our website when Will Figg gets on it...Droppin' the ball, Figg)

The most wonderful time of the year...

2008-07-31T19:20:00.001-07:00

Hey There,

So, we've made it all the way up to Seattle; tonight we're playing at the Columbia City Theater, which is a super sweet venue so far (the show starts in 40 minutes). Unfortunately it is raining, but hopefully it will clear in time for Sea-Fair this weekend, which will undoubtedly be filled with Rainier Beer, American Flag Speedos, and uncontrollable blatant disregard. (Pictures on Facebook will follow)

I'm super stoked to see my esteemed associates T.K., Riblets "Guy", 5-Head, and the rest of the Seattle Crew minus Da Meat & Crazy K....Meat, if you're reading this, I send you scrot-warming regards. This group of debauchers will be partaking in the most wonderful time of the year - Sea-Fair Weekend.

Well, props to Seattle for having city-wide WiFi so that I can post this super neat Blog for mabey 2 people to read.

Later - Haircut

EXTREME BLOGGING!!!!

2008-07-22T14:47:00.000-07:00

Hey there everyone, this is Haircut with my first blog...we are currently on our West Coast Tour, rocking faces & Fresh Island Jamming every night. Right now we're chillin' in Bonny Doon, in the Santa Cruz area at John's Grandparent's house. We've jammed on some new tunes, they're shaping up to be some pretty tasty songs, and we've also filmed a commercial for Taco Bell with our videographer Will Figg.

So far we've rocked SLO, San Francisco, Campbell, Watsonville, Redwood City, Berkeley, Santa Cruz and tonight we're on to Cupertino. Thanks to everyone who has come out and seen us so far. The shows have been great and I'm having an awesome time, although our sleep schedule is way out of wack. Wake up at 7:30am, go to bed at 5am, wake up at noon, go to bed at 2am. I guess it's the price you pay for being on tour. That and listening to T-Bone's obscenities every 20 seconds.

As this is my first blog I will disclose the list of pseudonyms that I go by: Haircut, HC Slater, Slater, H-Cut, H, Chris Arntzen, Pocket Norris.

I would like to conclude my first blog with a quote from my good friend The Meat, who is currently in Tanzania, holding the occupation of African Herb Man:

And I quote, "Mine actions hath forsaken thee. For this I ask for grand apologies preformed in actions which will surely involve mighty steeds, four giants of girth unimaginable, and one squire whose curiosity knows no bounds. I shall communicate soon through noble horns of cellular heritage. Till then, my Sac be with ye."