"Beer is my gum."

Last night, by some twist of fate, Naomi and Sue and I made it in time to catch The Graduate's whole set at their free Knitting Factory show. We dashed in at 7, expecting to catch the last 2 songs, but as a pleasant surprise they hadn't started yet.



Sometimes we try to be cool at shows, so we don't sing along or dance or anything...last night was not one of those nights. We were rocking out like morons, and I think I actually hit Naomi when they played Justified. We discussed it later, and we don't think that anyone cares about any band succeeding as much as we care about The Graduate succeeding.



We went to say hi to some of the guys after the show, and Max informed me that someone had put the inklings acoustic version of Sit & Sink on youtube...I checked it out today, and it turns out that it actually has more hits on youtube than it's gotten on our own website. I just posted newly re-edited versions of Sit & Sink, and also Monty Are I's Between the Sheets video. The sound should be a lot better, and it looks nicer, too. Check it out!

Then, who should we run into at the Knitting Factory, but other friends of Inklings, Tokyo Rose! As it turned out, they were playing in the Tap Bar later, so we caught up with them and stuck around to catch their set. There was more dancing, more good music and more good times.

The Graduate was raffling off a brand new guitar, and Naomi actually ended up winning it!...but by some shady turn of events, it got stolen while we were watching Tokyo Rose. Knitting Factoryyyyy! (you can't see this, but I'm shaking my fist.) It's a real bummer, Naomi and Sue and I were going to start a band! (Sue plays bass, and I have a tambourine shaped like a star.)

In other Inklings news, we have a new collaboration that we're super excited about! We're going to be launching a west coast branch to the site, with photographer Jered Scott. His pictures are awesome, so we're psyched to have him doing some text interviews and taking some sweet pics! Tonight he caught up with MxPx and Lakes, so keep your eyes peeled for that stuff to surface on the site sometime soon! Also, it gives me and Naomi an excuse to go to California to shoot something and say what's up to Jered...New York gets cold in the winter.

Stay awesome.
-Carrie

WARPED TOUR INTERVIEWS & PICTURES UP!!

Warped Tour!

This Sunday, we had a long and awesome day shooting at Warped Tour in Englishtown, NJ. The day started off a little bit rough-- I was coming in from JFK (I was at a wedding in Buffalo Saturday night) so I met up with Naomi and Dylan, one of our camera dudes for the day, at Penn Station and we drove down to Jersey.

It took us 45 minutes to get to the Englishtown exit, and 2.5 hours to drive the last 10 miles to Raceway Park. Lucky for us, Dylan is hilarious, so the traffic jam wasn't nearly as torturous as I would've expected.

First interview of the day was with Will from Amber Pacific. He was a good sport-- we were sitting down on the pavement, and the sun was heating it up so much that I couldn't sit still, but he didn't even flinch. We caught the end of their set later in the day-- they were great.

Later we talked to Shawn from The Matches. He told us a story about a girl throwing up at one of their signings...check back on the site to see it when it gets posted (or check out the animation he made in his blog.)

After that (plus Meg & Dia, So They Say and The Spill Canvas) we talked to Kenny from The Starting Line. He had the magical ability to make whoever he was talking about appear. He talked about their upcoming coheadlining tour with Paramore, and half of Paramore walked by behind me. He talked about watching Circa Survive, and one of the guys from Circa rode his bike directly through the interview. Also, at one point he was talking about influences and for a split second I really thought he'd said Ace of Base (until I realized that he probably said face to face, which actually makes a lot more sense.)

We had a quick chat with Bryce from The Rocket Summer (whose new album I LOVE) and then took a belated lunch break. Other camera dude Joe and photographer-for-the-day Eric went to check out Chiodos and New Found Glory. One of our last interviews of the day was with Bayside. They're awesome guys, and we already posted a little preview of what's to come from their interview...head over to our youtube to check it out.

After one last interview (with Rookie of the Year, at their merch tent) we said goodbye to our wonderful crew for the day, and Naomi and I stuck around to check out some bands. We saw The Starting Line from afar, and we managed to catch a good chunk of Circa's set (condom spaceships, anyone?) before heading to the Hurley stage to see Bayside. They had a great set-- I think Anthony has such a cool voice. Also, Aaron from Underoath/The Almost came out to sing The Walking Wounded with them.

On our way out we saw a bit of Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, then we hopped back in the car for our short trip back to NYC (read: we got lost 4 times and it took us 2.5 hours, then my subway wasn't running when I tried to go home from Naomi's.) In any case, it was a great day and we can't wait to get the stuff up for everyone to see!

day one: two thumbs up!

So, yesterday was our first shoot for Inklings. Naomi and I were both excited and prepared-- we were up until 2 Friday night prepping for the day. We had a bunch of cool spots picked out in a park about 2 blocks from the Knitting Factory, and we had been set up there since 1, sitting there and getting some tans. Unfortunately, mother nature decided to rain on our parade.

In the 5 minutes that it took us to walk from the park to the venue to meet up with The Graduate, the sky turned from blue to black. We were partway to the park with the guys when we decided to turn back. So they headed back to the venue while Naomi and I ran back to the park to get the rest of our equipment before it got rained on. Let me tell you, there's nothing like a 4 block run in the rain while carrying 100 lbs worth of camera equipment!

Luckily, we'd found a cafe nearby while we were scouting out the park on Friday, and they let us get out of the rain and shoot in there. The guys in The Graduate were very understanding, and Matt, Max and Corey met us over at the cafe for the interview. I have to say, I'm so psyched that we got to shoot with these guys before they blow up (which I'm 100% sure that they will, because they're phenomenal.) They played us an acoustic version of Sit & Sink, which was so good you'll probably poop your pants when you watch it.

A few minutes later, Monty Are I came in for some tuna melts (also, an interview). I think interviewing them really legitified our legitness. We talked mostly about red bull, but also about Warped Tour, Rhode Island and Hootie, among other things. They also played us a couple acoustic songs, which will be posted along with their interview later this week! Check out the videos section of the site for a little sneak peek.

We had to rush to make it to the show in time for The Graduate (we did unfortunately miss 1997) but we ran in about 45 seconds before they started so it worked out. The entire show was great-- Naomi and I hung out in the back and danced the whole time.

After the show I was chatting with Matt from New Atlantic (who we were also supposed to
shoot with yesterday, but because of the weather and schedule changes we were all pressed for time and it just didn't work out. Hopefully we'll reschedule) when Naomi joined us and he tricked her into thinking he was in The Audition. She fell for it, and for some reason so did I, despite the fact that Matt and I had just finished a discussion about New Atlantic's set. Sorry Matt, we seriously do know what band you're in.

So despite the fact that almost everything that could have gone wrong, did, (mostly weather-wise) we couldn't be happier, and can't wait to get the interviews up for all to see! Huuuuuge thanks to Sue for helping us shoot all day! We will try our damnedest to get Monty Are I up by this weekend, and The Graduate up by next weekend.

-Carrie