It was truly surreal. Kicking off a tour at your home base and going home after makes it seem like just another show. But tomorrow we’re in Pittsburgh so it really is a tour stop. 

I went on Rew http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WszIkFh5EMs today before the kick off party and had a rowdy good time! Nothing like being obliterated on camera. No Future kicked the show off with a bang w/mad rhymes over dope beats! Then the stars of the I Like Pussy Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PpVO4aeYqQ Subject Of The Question brought their intriguing style of rock to the table. Digamy followed with an intense set that turned this party up to a fever pitch. They’ll be on tour next week and sound ready to explode into the national scene. Still Electric kicked ass as they are becoming a local favorite w/their cool version of Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow.

The Dead Tricks were so fucking amazing tonight! Boy it was hard following them. Cho Cha Wave is going to be a huge hit for them. I really wish they were going w/us the rest of the way. We are really a good mix of fun old school punk w/hooks and we’ll be playing a lot of shows w/them down the road.

So we took the stage w/a fury. Blasting through 11 classics and 3 brand new songs. The crowd was very cool. The Dead Tricks and Subject Of The Question started moshing and shit went over the top. The new mid section of Fireworks & Beer worked like a charm and the crowd came up w/the ultimate backing vocals for People Suck! We may have to re record that one. Erin was rock solid in her 3 show w/us in a month or so and this line up will be locked in tight in a day or two. We are ready!

So a short sleep and a long drive are ahead of us now. Until Pittsburgh!

Hello all of our friends, fans and followers! OK, we slacked on telling you about the mini tours last winter which went great! We solidified our presence initiated on the Sloppy Seconds For The US tour in Youngstown and Cleveland and debuted in Indianapolis and Richmond Virginia. And we got drunk. In January Kat came out on the road with us for the first time. In February Matt “Cleveland Steamer” (as we affectionately call him) filled in last minute and played brilliantly! We partied at Royal Oaks in Youngstown with Viking Jim, Sarah “Fireworks”, and met the crew from Rukus Radio. TJ from Rukus saw us in Cleveland in October then caught us at Cedars in Youngstown in January then partied with us in February with the take over of Rukus Radio by the MetalHealth show making for a raucous good time! Seems like only yesterday….

Then we went on a tear in NYC playing every Friday night in 8 out of 10 weeks! We introduced 4 brand new songs into the set, shot a video for I Like Pussy and started getting airplay in various regions from coast to coast. In the last few days, FatCat Radio has been playing us all the time! Just what we needed to get the word out about this tour!

Here we are on the last day of May. I’m sitting at work daydreaming away the afternoon. In 24 hours I’ll be sitting at Otto’s Shrunken Head as a guest on Rew & Who. And that will mark the first moment of The Bloody Muffs Midwest Infestation. A tour that concentrates on the region that embraced us last fall. For the next two weeks we’ll be telling you about all the wild times we are sure to have on this crazy venture into the middle of the country. Stay tuned! 

I had posted blogs of both of the first two shows in the van as we travelled from city to city only to have my iPod become extremely tempermental about connecting and both got lost in in the Mountains of West Virginia. Just now I found the time and motivation to finally tell the world about our diahrrea.

We started our day on Friday January 14, 2011 waking up before sunrise to catch a train that doesn’t exist to meet the van to go pick up Kat and Henry and drive from South Jersey to Youngstown OH in a surprisingly intense burst of snow. Remnants of the cold and snowy weather we’ve been locked into in Northeast since Christmas were evident wherever you looked leaving a beautiful winter scene everywhere.

We arrived in Youngstown OH at 8pm. After a quick warm up drink or three at the hotel, we headed to Cedar’s Lounge- the local “CBGB” (every city has one). A pan handler helped guide the van down the narrow alley where the stage door was. The bar has a really great vibe and we enjoyed the lower price drinks than what we would find at home (Guiness + Shot of Patron $7.50!) and upon finding out we were going on at 1am I got a really quick buzz on as we were chilling w/Viking Jim and Damien Killjoy from Youngstown Rock. And the smoking ban had gone into effect since our last trip in October. But they have a cool backyard where drinks and smokes can be shared.

Vox Voronet was first. They played shoegaze indie type set that showed off their talents. Next was Dead Ivan who came in from Toledo. Very cool My Bloody Valentine influenced songs kept my attention for the whole set.

Next came us. It’s the first time we played a second show in any city but NY and a bunch of people from the University Pizza show in October came to see us again. And it was the first time they saw us with Kat. During soundcheck she dazzled the crowd with her “Kat Stuff” and got a roaring response. One dude even jumped up on stage to shake her hand much to the dismay of the sound guy.

We tore through an hour long set that left the crowd screaming for more! After the set we met up with all our new friends and drank and chilled with them. One guy had just come their to have a drink and when he saw us he was thrilled. He had seen us in Cleveland last fall but couldn’t remember our name. Upon seeing us this time he told us about his radio show on Rukus Radio and that he was going to spinning us all the time!

The thing that was really cool is how everyone was saying “see you in Cleveland” alluding to our Spitfire Saloon show next month. And Viking Jim was telling me the next day that we are making a big impact in Youngstown. That really made my day knowing that all the blood sweat and tears we have put into the band is beginning to pay off! Wow!

I’m sitting here at Otto’s Shrunken Head drinking a Red Stripe and some bad ass tequila. Today Jo got the van and I loaded it. Bright and early tomorrow we leave for Youngstown to kick of our Midwest Winter blitz. This time we are thrilled to have Kat Kaos with us. This time people will experience The Bloody Muffs the way we are known in NYC-as a power trio that kicks your ass until you like it.
Mother Nature tried her best to derail us. A blizzard hit NYC leaving Jessica stranded in Vegas and jeopardizing our chance by having us snowed in. But The Bloody Muffs prevailed as we are loaded and ready to go with everyone present and accounted for.
So thus we embark on the journey to the next chapter in the story. Thus we continue our growth as a band. Thus we expand our market even further. Thus we begin at the place it took off first. Tomorrow is the next chapter. And we’ll keep you posted as we write our story.
www.thebloodymuffs.com

Happy New Year to all who read this. 2010 was such an awesome year for us that I’d like to reflect on it before we move forward…

In January 2010 we were writing the bulk of Sloppy Seconds. The Ballad Of Tilty Rodriguez, Drunk Tank, 118 Blues, and Throw It All Away were all written in January. We played Peak Oil Party in February (our 5th Peak Oil Party appearance) and worked very, very hard on perfecting the 9 songs for Sloppy Seconds and wrote song #10- Cause And Effect. From March 19-April 13 we recorded and mixed Sloppy Seconds. In April we returned to the live arena playing New Jersey for the first time and Otto’s. In May we played WFMU’s Bleeding Ear Fest with a 30 minute that “took the live room with their ballsy rocked out punk, still unbelievably revved up at 4am… ”
- Diane Kamikaze, WFMU Beware of The Blog (Jun 21, 2010) June started w/Jonesy’s Birthday Bash and finished w/Punk Island. In July we played Otto’s and then a week later w/the amazing Out Of Order(http://www.facebook.com/pages/Out-Of-Order/177760828513?v=info). In August we played in NJ again and then Gjoa Fest. September we played Otto’s and then another NJ gig at Loop Lounge. In October we started as the first band ever to play Piss Alley and then went on the road from Oct 18-Nov 8 and played from coast to coast and back. And then when we got back we went on a tear that saw us as part of Otto’s Shrunken Head’s reopening. a few more gigs and then on Dec 29 we threw our Sin Now And Resolve Later party that was the buzz of the city. Whew! That’s most of it.

So here we are in Jan of 2011. We are planning some big big big things this year. We return to the road for a few dates in Youngstown OH (1-14-11), Indianapolis IN (1-15-11) and Richmond VA (1-16-11). Then we return to NYC and play our 3rd Piss Alley at Local 269 (1-22-11). In February we return to Cleveland OH (2-18-11) and are tentatively returning to Indianapolis (2-19-11) although it is not official as of today. In April we are playing Beefstock (4-8 to 4-10-11). In May we…well let’s talk about that in a few weeks ;)

So we are continuing to roll on the way we finished up 2010 as we enter 2011. And we will be recording album 3, but again we’ll come back to that at another time. Are you ready for The Bloody Muffs?

As we drive through Allentown which would have been the final gig of the tour if the booking agent wasn’t such a… Anyway, it’s time to reflect on the final stop on the tour- Blue Rock Tavern in Cincinnati.
We got to the venue at 8 and it was a ghost town. I was nervous that we weren’t going to be playing to anyone. But Tony the bartender and his dog Buddy kicked off things on the right foot with a couple of rounds of shots and some fetch the ball. Buddy is the most adorable dog and such a joy to be around. Tony really did the right thing for us and the first impression was lost by the 3rd drink and we were all having a great time.
We started off playing to a few people at the bar. Then something awesome happened. Three upstairs neighbors came down to check us out after hearing us through their walls. We have been telling everyone to crank our CDs to piss off the neighbors. And here we r winning them over. Unreal experience.
As the final show of the tour and the last show with Eric, we really went out with a bang. Gone was the we mean business approach we had for much of the tour replaced with a fun and loose good time party. The funniest I Like Pussy finished up the nearly 1 hour set. And then we celebrated until closing. A wildly hilarious ride back to the roach motel we were staying at closed the door on our first national tour.

When we pulled up to the venue, we saw it looked like a house. But once we got inside our jaws hit the floor. In what looked like a garage added on to the house we found a seriously professional music hall. A tall stage with stacks of speakers and lights like a major touring act would have. What a venue.
Justin and his wife Misty bought the venue in June of 2010. And they are in the process of turning it into the venue in the Milwaukee area. They treated us like royalty making us feel like part of the family. They are real. And Chris the stage manager and Don the sound guy are amazing people and top notch professionals.
Justin booked us purely based on our name. We wanted to make sure he got the best show possible.
The sound was unbelievable. The monitors were perfectly set and that made it easy to do what we do best- kick people in the ass for 35 minutes.
Much of this show will be on YouTube as soon as we get it up there.
After the show we drank with Justin, Misty and Chris talking about our future in the soon to be renamed Eden Hall (named after their soon to be born daughter Eden). Without a doubt this is going to be one of the best venues in the country and we can’t wait to return to the fabulous smell of bacon the town is known for (ok- Jessica isn’t so into the bacon smell). What an amazing venue!

Ok. Straight up. Lemmons is awesome. Brian put together a fantastic line up and sandwiched us between two great local acts- the Qualudes and Resoldered.
The pizza was awesome and the bar fed us and got us drunk and payed us.
We really dialed up an explosive show and the crowd was really supportive. We hung out with a bunch of great people. St Louis is a cool city. And we are definitely coming back asap. Really loved this one!

after the 2 long days of driving from Vegas, we were eager to jump back on stage. From the outside Soundpony looked like a cool bar. But in reality it is an amazingly awesome bar with great drinks and a cool staff. But the patrons made this night one of the best on the tour.
We kicked off with the usual starting 4 (Flop House, Tilty, Drama Queen & Let’s Get Drunk & Fuck). The crowd got up and stood right in our faces rocking as we rolled. The more we played the more into it they got. No crazy stuff like Cleveland but one guy did start undressing.
After the show we drank and drank and drank. Joshua (the owner) spun some amazing records that got everyone dancing until last call. The Soundpony in Tulsa is by far one of the best places to play or hang. We are definitely returning!

Let’s leave this one to what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas