7/30 - The luck of the Irish runs dry in New Orleans

Holy fucking shit, yesterday was our most bat-shit crazy day so far on this tour. Was it good? Was it bad? I don't even—I can't describe—just read about this shit. We stayed up extremely late in Hattiesburg, chilling out with our new friends Rob and Eli. However we were up and out relatively early in the morning, because our plan from the beginning was to spend as much time as possible enjoying the culture of New Orleans. Joe, Karl, Dave and I rose early to find our dear Irish lad Seamus (Sean) sleeping at the foot of Rob's bed. That shit was hilarious. All of us were well and rip roaring, psyched to go to NOLA, but unfortunately Seamus wasn't feeling so hot. Because we partied a little bit the night before, we assumed it was just some residual effects that would wear off before long.

That sneaky leprechaun is fast asleep in another man's bed.

After a glass of water, we piled into the tourmobile to tackle the quick drive into New Orleans. It ended up being 2 hours, and we left early enough that the traffic wasn't an issue. We got to the venue in the early afternoon, and ended up with all of the afternoon and evening to enjoy the town. None of us had eaten anything substantial so far that day, so all of us were ravenous. The mission: CAJUN FOOD! But the car was parked in the perfect place relative to the venue, so we definitely weren't going to be driving anywhere. We began walking toward Bourbon Street in hopes of finding gumbo and po' boys. It was absolutely sweltering outside and us northboys were rapidly wilting without food in the hot southern sun. It ended up being a total of about 2.4 miles before we hit the main strip. We were hard pressed to find a place with po boys for under $10. ($10 is absolutely an absolutely outlandish price for touring musicians to pay for a single meal, but New Orleans cajun food is worth it tenfold). We ended up happening upon Café Beignet, a sick little joint tucked away on Bourbon Street. Best of all, it wasn't as pricy as the rest of the restuarants There, we ordered shrimp and catfish poboys, gumbos, and of course, authentic beignets. Needless to say, this food was absolutely AMAZING. There was a trio of awesome old dudes playing classic dixieland and jazz tunes, and great outdoor seating with fans blowing on us. Absolutely immaculate.

Dave repaired his sandals with a bandana. 

a monumental occasion in Autolatry's culinary history

"The Three Titscrubbers"

Holy christ this is the best Beignet ever.

But it wasn't all a walk in the park though, our boy Seamus was definitely not feeling to hot. So much so that he couldn't stomach any food. We were a bit concerned at that point. After we ate, we elected that we should go back the the neighboring bar, Siberia, (where the concert was originally booked), and just hang there while Sean could sit down, relax, and just chill. That gave us a good opportunity to charge phones and blog. At this point, Seamus was holding back the puke, and was NOT a happy camper. Dave volunteered to walk straight back to the bar with Sean. Karl, Joe, and I took our time on the way back, going in and out of voodoo shops and record stores. When we got to the bar, Sean was nearly at rock bottom. Feeling absolutely shitty. We determined that it was no ordinary hangover, it had to be some stomach ailment. We all felt horrible for him, and really did our best to keep the situation under control and create a solution. We made a trip to the pharmacy to get some medicine and supplies. However the only thing that didn't result in puke was sleep. It turns out that the show's promoter never even showed up, and both bands we were lined up to play with cancelled. To top it off, the venue had a bluegrass concert that was going on for two hours (8PM-10PM). We found out that an awesome band called The Foot, a unique sounding death metal band was slaped on the bill

We elected after great deliberation that the best course of action to make in this massive fuck-fest was to play as a four piece, without bass. As much as we didn't want to portray ourselves without bass, it was a Monday night, and we could probably sell a few CDs and release some pent up energy on stage. The performance went well despite the low end and we sold some merch wholesale to Chris from "The Foot" who owns the oldest record store in New Orleans! The Foot kicked ass before we went on with their unique take on grind, sludge, and death.

After the show we really needed a place to stay, as our bassist was fully incapacitated and needed a good night's sleep. Fortunately, Chris from The Foot bought a shitload of merch for his record store which allowed to book a hotel for the night so poor Seamus the leprechaun could sleep comfortably in a bed. All in all, this day was fucking insane. We had a great time, and had the shittiest time ever. I don't even know. Fucking goddamn. I don't even know. As hard as it may be to believe, there was even more shit that went down yesterday that I can't even type up right now. You'll just have to ask us about the rest of it at a show sometime. We ended up getting a good night's sleep, some new fans and new friends, and did well financially. As usual, now we're off to the next: Houston!

7/29 - MIIIIIIISSSSSIIISSSSSSIIIIIIPPPIIIIIIIIII

We spent the night with Kevin and Ray down in Gainesville, and enjoyed a sound night of sleep in their awesome living room. Their couches were so fucking comfortable that we probably could've slept past noon on those bad boys! Unfortunately we had a long drive ahead of us. We were going all the way from Gainesville to Hattiesburg, Mississippi! Karl, our American badass, woke up ripe and early at 7AM to rouse us and get us moving westward. Kudos to him because we ended up beating some traffic and getting most of the way out of Florida before noon.

About 60 miles before we passed through Pensacola, we needed to take a rest stop to get some gas and stretch the legs out. We began to pull over to a rest stop, but quickly swung to the right because there was a "State Park" sign. Being the nature lovers we are, we instantly knew what to do, go to the Florida natural springs!!!

Breaking out the burritos

When we pulled into the state park and rummaged through all of our pockets and hidden car compartments for $4, we pulled into this amazing park called Ponce De Leon Springs State Park. It turned out to be more than worth the 4 dollars. The first order of business was to whip out burrito supplies and bring home the goodies. After we got our daily fix, we ran back to car to get our swimming trunks on. Anyone from our homeland Connecticut really has no idea what north Florida's natural springs are like until it's seen in real life. Crystal clear freshwater, surrounded by woods, trees rooted in the middle of the water, minnows swimming around, with a fine sandy bottom. Best of all; the water was cold as shit. Super refreshing!

Tour food delights

A crystal clear "fuck you"

Wow it's cold!

We took our sweet time swimming, and ended up taking something of a hike down the stream deep into some tropical woods. Seriously a cool experience for us. We saw some frightening wildlife, but managed to make it out intact without shrieking too, too much. (Just kidding, we play black metal so we're not afraid of shit!)

FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK

After our leisurely escapade at the state park, we hopped back in the tourmobile and trucked it the rest of the way to Mississippi. Once we hit some civilization (the roads in the backcountry are very isolated), we stopped to grab some cheap soft serve ice cream because it was so damn hot down in Alabama/Mississippi.

Ice cream and blogging. Hell yeah!

We made it to the venue in Hattiesburg, MS a little bit early, so nobody was there. We were at first a bit apprehensive that nothing was going on that night because The Tavern wasn't even open. We split up into groups and examined the local supermarket and general surroundings, but didn't last long away from the car because of the absolutely sweltering heat. Before too long, another band showed up and we were underway for the night.

Autolatry chilling at the venue and me being an idiot

The weird shit that you find in Mississippi grocery stores

The band Burn Down The Scenery opened up the night with their agressive core-style metal. Then we took the stage, and fortunately, a crowd gathered for us! Hard to expect a good crowd at a metal show on a Sunday night in Mississippi, but believe it or not, it turned out awesome. We rocked it hard and people received us well. Closing out the night was Through The Awake, another metalcore band who was musically tight. It was quite evident that they had a good deal of local support and worked the crowd with their absolutely hilarious Spongebob Squarepants theme song cover.

Show flyer for the night: Autolatry with Through the Awake

After the show, we met up with Rob and Eli from Third World Abortion, a death metal band from the Hattiesburg area. They were kind enough to lend us some space on their floors and couches for the night. We ended up staying up with them and shooting the shit all night. Those guys are really awesome and we had a great time last night!

Seamus, that sneaky leprechaun.

We ended up crashing very late at night, but knew that we had to get up relatively early because the next day, we'd be playing NOLA!! Our plan from the beginning of this tour was to spend our whole day in New Orleans, soaking up some badass culture. The writeup for New Orleans will be live tomorrow! Stay tuned, my loyal friends!

7/28 - Video games in Gainesville!

We spent the night with Aaron, Camden, and Sabrina from Seven Kingdoms at their house in downtown DeLand. We crashed on their living room floor after a most enjoyable night of chilling and screwing around. Somehow, Dave wound up in a chicken suit by the end of the evening. dfasdl;asdfj goddammit it was hilarious. We were all exhausted from such a crazy show that night though (Joe especially) and just fell asleep. 

Hairiest cock in the world

In the morning, Aaron woke us up with some brisk raw bacon slaps to the face, and before we knew it, a huge breakfast was underway. There was bacon, eggs, pancakes and candy coffee. Truly amazing! We hung out and talked awhile with the guys at their place in DeLand because we had a 93 mile drive from there to Gainesville. We didn’t end up leaving until about 4 PM. A great time was had all around, and we cannot thank them enough for making us comfortable in their own home! 

This dude sleeps fucking constantly. 

When we got into the tourmobile, we were in for a rude awakening. It seems that last night when we were in our packing frenzy, a gallon bottle of Arizona iced tea fell onto a much smaller bottle of shampoo. You can probably guess which bottle came out victorious in that match... There was a pool of thick shampoo all over the car that had been baking in the Florida noonday heat. Needless to say it wasn’t pleasant, Karl cleaned it up and the aftermath of the incident was nothing more than a cleaner car. No harm, no foul. Before shipping off to Gainesville, we stopped at a Wal-Mart to refill our stock of Sriracha hot sauce, the most glorious invention on Earth! (We need that shit to make everything we eat on the road bearable. 

"The car's clean! Just shampooed all the carpets" - Karl

The drive to Gainesville was excellent. We didn’t set wheel on the interstate once. Instead, we took the back roads through the beautiful Ocala State Forest. Being forest lovers, we’re very accustomed to woods of nothing but maples, oaks, ashes, and pines. It’s definitely a treat for us north boys to see boreal forests of palm tress!

When we got to the venue, we squeezed in burrito time quickly before we started talking to the guys from the band Impurity. The venue in Gainesville, the 1982 bar, was fucking sick! There was a nicely proportioned stage, a nice bar, but most of all, the place was stocked with vintage video games! THere were 5 TV sets in the bar, each one hooked up to a separate N64. We certainly made the best of that; there was something of an Autolatry Mario Kart 64 tourney going on. 

Daily fix

Vidya gamez homy

A truly cool bar in downtown Gainesville

Impurity rocked it

Our stage setup

There were only 2 bands on the bill that night, us and Impurity, a traditional Floridian death metal band who really kicked some ass. We opened up the night, rocking out and giving it our all. It was something of a slow night. Many of the fans did not show up until after 10:30PM when we had already finished our set. But it ended up alright! Most fans kept us in mind and came to talk to us at our merch table after the show. It was a good time. Closing out the night was Impurity. They brought the house down with their awesome style  of revivalist Florida death metal. They wowed us with tight musicianship and all around performance. The riffs were brutal and heavy, and they added their own twist to the style with some tasteful slamdowns. After the show, some friends of Impurity were kind enough to lend us a parcel of floor space to crash on. We needed to get some rest to prepare for our long drive the next day: Hattiesburg, Mississippi! 

Summarily, we owe a big thanks to Damian and the rest of the guys from Impurity! Also, huge thanks to Kevin and Ray for putting us up in their house last night! We had a fun time in Gainesville, but since we’re nomadic black metal bastards, now we’re off to the next! Writeup for Hattisburg, MS will be live tomorrow!

7/28 - "Of DeLand"

Yesterday, we started out the day by sitting on our fat asses at Dave's place, gorging our faces....again. Since Dave was going to be leaving again, we of course had to clean out his kitchen. We cooked french toast, eggs, potatoes & onions, and some hazelnut coffee all while pumping the complete works of Led Zeppelin. It was anticosmic as fuck. We had originally planned to leave St. Pete in the early afternoon, but we realized that actually had a lot more time on our hands, and ended up dickin' around for another few hours. It sounds useless, but it was some much needed resting time before our journey to DeLand/Deleon Springs. Dave was working hard on repairing his guitar, while the rest of us took our leisurely time sprucing up his apartment and fueling up.

Fuckin' breakfast

When we finally lifted our fat and exhausted asses off of Dave's floor and, we packed up and drove right down the road to our favorite store...Save a Lot! We were out of canned food and wanted to stock up for the next several days. One thing is for sure: Autolatry loves to eat!

In the early evening we finally lifted off toward DeLeon Springs. it was a nice and short drive. Once we got through Orlando traffic, things were moving smoothly. We drove through downtown DeLand, and were surprised to see a very charming area; plenty of little bars, restaurants and a few outdoor concerts were set up along the main avenue. When we saw the venue, The Junkyard Saloon, we were absolutely floored. The place is fucking sick! There was a small bar on the inside with a pool table, walls covered in Americana and generally cool shit. Out back was the stage. It was an outdoor, covered stage with a nicely proportioned floor. The back had a firepit and plenty of seating. For sure one of the coolest little venues we've seen. With time, that place can hopefully become a local hotspot.

Tampa traffic is shitty

Zombie Dave

Sudden Rainstorm

We met up with some of Dave's friends Camden and Aaron From the excellent band Seven Kingdoms. Those dudes are awesome, we had a great time with them at the show. The band FlesHarvest opened up the set with their classic polished thrash metal. They rocked it hard with divebombs and rippin' solos, check them out! Next up was a cool two-piece called Williams Minions. They were just a drummer and a bassist with a nasty effects rig. They had the crowd in awe with airy post-rock and experimental grooves. We closed out the night and the crowd received us well. We went crazy on stage and it was definitely up there with our favorite shows.

We found this video of our set on youtube this morning. You can see from Karl's glistening body that it was indeed, a sweaty, hot, and wild night. Autolatry at Junkyard Saloon

After the gig, we went back to Camden, Aaron, and Sabrina's place in downtown DeLand. They have a really nice place, and they showed us the MOST AMAZING hospitality. They had beer and spaghetti waiting for us when we arrived. Anyone that doesn't know their band, Seven Kingdoms, should check them out, they've got a new record on the way!

Next, we're off to Gainesville to play at 1982 bar with Impurity. Tune in tomorrow for some more updates on our antics!

7/26 Drinking Deep from the Brass Mug in Tampa, FL with Fisthammer

Today was an action-packed, fun-filled day in St. Pete and Tampa. Karl took the jackwagon out for a much needed oil change bright and early while Dave and I (Joe here!) voyaged to Publix for some breakfast groceries (30 eggs, 5lbs potatoes, 3lbs onions, a loaf of bread, and two bunches of bananas). A wire was jostled loose in Dave’s Ibanez S Prestige and so we stopped at the local Ace Hardware to pick up a soldering iron. The bastards had the nerve to charge $17 for their cheapest iron so needless to say we high-tailed it back home, planning to scope out better prices online and make a mountain of breakfast for the guys. After a heated debate between Dave and I about how to cook the potatoes, we all dined on some primo breakfast food.

Wanting to take advantage of a pretty empty day and with our show being just a stone’s throw across the bay, we said “hey let’s go to the beach!”. So while Dave took care of his guitar stuff at home, the rest of the gang set off on a couple mile walk through St. Pete to a beautiful little beach on the bay. Pristine waters warmer than piss, fine white Florida sand, and a gorgeous view of the bay. Thus far Florida has been very kind, sparing us the blistering heat and sweltering humidity its summer months are known for. It's the end of July and we've been rocking out in the mid 80's for Pete's sake! Thank you St. Pete!

Spa Beach fully deserves its title

dryin' off in the noonday sun

saw this cute little bugger on the way home :D

But soon enough it was quarter to six and time to get on the road. Taking advantage of the available luxury, Dave and I took his teeny Honda Civic while Karl, Sean, and Matt piled back in the Expedition. We got there pretty early and had plenty of time to check out the space and chill with the awesome dudes in Fisthammer! I also got a chance to play with my camera and be really excited about shooting in black in white because that's metal or something.

look at that tight butt

Adirondack chairs outside the venue

Karl preparing to shit his pants

Karl shitting his pants

We sat around the Brass Mug for awhile, just chit-chattin and listening to some nostalgic metal going through the PA. Not too many people showed up to this gig but hey, it was still a great time. Fisthammer played a tight, high-energy set of their unique brand of "death metal" (who needs genres anway?). Shreddy tappin' solos, racing intricate guitar lines, and some slow bone-crushing riffs to bring it all together. Awesome musicians and awesome dudes from Philly, we had a great time with them. Check em' out on bandcamp or facebook! http://fisthammer.bandcamp.com/ http://www.facebook.com/Fisthammer

Fisthammer tearing shit up!

lobster claw obscenities

This place had the biggest stage that we've played so far and it was pretty odd feeling actually. We're very much used to being squished together like a pile of greasy sardines so this was definitely an interesting change. After the show we chilled around the venue, shot some pool, and loaded our gear back into the trailer. At this point we were all starved so we pacted on using the rest of our Jimmy John's dumpster bread to make stuffing when we got home despite the late hour. A delicious caramel Fiber One Bar (pretty proud of my $.99 for a box find) for each of us held us over till we got home. Karl and Sean crashed but me, Matt, and Dave absolutely gorged ourselves on some homemade stuffing. Nothing is better than 3AM stuffing. A perfect end to the night. 

homemade stuffing = best use for an excess days old Jimmy John's dumpster bread

throwin' the horns in Dave's quaint little kitch

7/25 - Black Grind mayhem at the Peacock Room in Orlando, FL

On Wednesday morning, we woke up level-headed for a morning of planning. Ready to jump back on stage after our brief studio appointment the day before, we committed to some much needed instrument maintenance. Using his well adapted Floridian instincts, Dingo Dave was able to foresee a traffic congestion on the bridge to Tampa, as well as the peak of rush hour traffic in Orlando. We planned to head out at 6pm, allowing Karl, Dave, and Matt to kill some time with a game of home-run derby on MLB 2K12 (Dingo won).

Iron Girl Bars... eat up sister!

Upon our arrival at the venue, we saw a groovy looking van and trailer, indicating to us that a badass band was around and that we should probably park in the vicinity. We headed inside to meet Kyle and Rob from Canadian grind band WAKE, whom we swapped touring stories and made good acquaintance with. Shortly after cracking open some cans of lunch, and gulping monkey piss from bottles labeled "energy shots", we were greeted by the rest of the awesome dudes from Wake as they emerged from their tour machine. We were very fortunate to be on the same bill as these dudes, they were very chill and always had something hilarious to say!

These dudes look lost, eh?

Inside of the venue, there was a main bar room, and off to the left was small art gallery/lounge area where we loaded in our equipment. At the back of the room, a glass double door opened to reveal the Peacock room, equipped with ambient red lighting and a comfortably sized stage. Things kicked off at 10:45, when LEGIONS ripped right into some crushing and fast black metal.

Lounge area between the bar and stage room

I personally enjoyed the performance that Legions put on thoroughly, and I can say with confidence that they played my favorite set so far on this tour. The energy and aggression cannot be put into words, so make sure you catch these guys when they're in you're area, you don't want to miss it!

We had the next slot to perform, and were greeted by a room packed with black metal fans. The room had a great feel to it, sounded great, and we played a solid set, maintaining the high energy for the night to come.

Next up was Wake, who brought blisteringly loud, crowd moving grind. Even though I had to listen to a majority of the set from the men's room (IBS and canned chili really did me in), I could hear the crowd rough housing and the riffs pumping with increasing intensity from the moment the set started.

Nefarious Ascendency closed the night in a grim fashion.


The event could not have gone better, the bands were great, and everyone was very supportive and friendly. We look forward to coming back to Orlando, it was a great return to the stage!

-Sean

7/24 - Crystal clear drum tracks in Clearwater, FL

After a kickass show in Jacksonville, we were all eager to get to Dave's apartment down in St. Petersburg. We ended up driving through the night to get there — all 4 hours of it. We got to Dave's place at 6 AM and all melted out of the car into Dave's house. I was fortunate enough to be granted sleeping permission, as my generous band members wanted me to be on my A-game for the recording session the next day. I managed to scrape about 2.5 hours of half-sleep in the car, but kept on waking up because of the thunderous laughter resulting from Karl's jokes. All. Night. Long. (But seriously, he's the funniest man in black metal).

Finally Gotcha, Karl! 

My plan was to change my drum heads as soon as I got to Dave's place so that I could sleep for as long as possible right up until we had to leave for the studio. Instead, I ended up going right to bed and waking up with another 2 hours of sleep only to rely on coffee and sickly banana flavored energy shots (those shits are disgusting)  to carry me through. Everything at the house went relatively smoothly, but as you may imagine, things got pretty hectic running on such little sleep.

We arrived at Clear Track studios, from Clearwater, FL at about noon and began setting up drums promptly. Dave was engineering the session, and Sean helped out to dial in tones and place mics. We were all pleased with their facilities at the studio but experienced a total of about 1.5 hours of setbacks because the staff at that studio was quite disorganized.

Our session was scheduled to begin at 1 PM, but we didn't start rolling tapes until about 2:45 PM. Between missing cables and console difficulties it was a minor debacle. It was daunting to our engineer, Dave, because we had 5 hours to do 5 songs worth of drum tracks. 3.5 hours to do the same amount of work seemed rather steep. But in my typical fashion, I kept calm and knocked out most of the songs in just a couple takes. Fuck yeah!

Here is some tracking footage from one of the new songs on our forthcoming release. This song is probably my favorite on the record so far because I get to just fuck around the whole time. Enjoy!

We finished tracking all the songs right at 6 PM, (our deadline) and were out of there after a quick data transfer. We spent the duration of the night at Dave's place chomping down tons of chili and enjoying some victory brew. All in all, it was an outrageously successful day. I'm sure all of our fans will enjoy this new release immensely.

One more studio video!

Sorry that this post went up so late. The writeup of our amazing Orlando show will be live in a few hours as well.

- Matt