One foot in the grave

So the details are finally in; we have a place, a time, and a list of bands for our final show.

This show marks the end of two bands, actually, as Troublemaker will be calling it a day as well. I do encourage everyone with any interest to come out and share in the experience with us, I'm sure it will be a memorable event.

The Long Goodbye

Come March of 2012, Black Kites will have cause to acknowledge two important milestones; the first is that the band will have been together for four years, and the second is that March will mark the end of Black Kites. "Why? WHY?!" approximately eight people will type furiously into their keyboards. Well, our lives have changed quite a lot since we started this band in pretty significant ways. What came so naturally and easy to us once does not come so easily anymore and, as we are men unafraid to appraise a situation for what it is, we have decided to put to rest this part of our lives and march bravely into the future.

I think it's important to note that we accomplished quite a lot for a group of three dudes from New Jersey. We recorded a healthy chunk of music, we played (perhaps literally) a million shows, we toured all over one quadrant of this country and almost all of western Europe, and we met some pretty incredible people along the way; people who gave us more help and support than was ever called for, and given unasked. So for those eight people who are shaken and upset, think fondly of our times together and make some plans to be with us at the end.

Now, details are shaky as of now, but we plan to play a final show in March with a healthy host of bands that have been with us for the long-haul. We plan to have a zine with us at the show which will contain a discography CD that includes the last three songs we have written. We plan to make long-winded speeches onstage about the importance of friendship and cooperative effort and the everyday "fight" to secure some small place of comfort in this fucked up world...

But all that comes later, and we'll know more as soon as the moments of importance are upon us.

Until those moments...

Love and Respect,
Jay and Black Kites

(yes we're all still vegan and straight-edge, by the way)

I'm afraid to die, but I'm not dead yet

True, Black Kites has been uncharacteristically inactive over the past month or so, but we've already put together two very, very heavy songs in preparation for yet another release that I'll offhandedly slate for release in the spring.

By the way, I'll be uploading some of the photos I took over in Europe to my own blog thing in the next week or so; keep an eye out.


http://itsanuglyworld.blogspot.com/

Leipzig, Hohenstein-Ernsthal, and finally home

After waking up in Dresden and eating a very casual breakfast with our brave promoter, Bjorn, and some other Conni-ites, we set a leisurely pace for Leipzig. You see, tour was almost over and we were in no hurry to go anywhere fast. Germany welcomed us back by raining a bunch, but that did not stop us from going for a refreshing swim in the Markkleeberger See. There were some naked shenanigans, but they were quickly silenced by Robert's food rage. In order to calm him we headed for Zoro, a squat that happens to have a super-nice vegan restaurant. Now, I lack the kind of epicurean feelings for food that many punks have, but the restaurant, Zest, served some truly incredible stuff. We ate, all in all, far too much, but what the hell; tour.

Finally we strolled over to the venue, located in another sizable squat. There we ate even more incredible food, loaded in, and hung out. 200 people ended up coming out to see Ghostlimb and Black Kites including our old pals from Zann. I thought the show was fantastic and had fun hanging out. Shout outs to my Zann dudes, the cooks, and Leo.

The next morning we headed back to the Markkleeberger See where things were decidedly more sexy than the day before. Europe is weird like that some times. Then we ate at Zest, again. It was great, again. Then we headed to our last show on the top of some mountain in the middle of nowhere. It felt distinctly like an Ohio Agricultural Fair. But we played and had fun and then tour was over. Then we barely went to bed and spent a bunch of time in planes, etc... But that's unimportant.

Tour was incredible. Thanks to all the friends we had before that helped us and all the friends we made who helped us. Y'all were too fucking kind. We love you. Let's hang out again!

Laval, Toulose, Marseille, Ljubljana, Prague, Dresden

So there is often no easily accessible wifi over here or time in which to use it; hence the lack of frequent updates. Post-Ieper we drove to Laval in France where we met up with new friends, Birds in Row, a band you will no doubt be hearing about in the next six months or so. We played in a basement(!) on a floor(!) and it felt good. Stayed with Birds' front-dude Bart at his parents' pad. The next day was a hefty 8 hour drive through the toll-happy French countryside to Toulose. It was fairly brutal, but we were happy to be greeted at the venue with delicious food and friendly French folks out for a show. Shout-out to Pablo, who shares a mutual friend with me in Sergio del Grosso from the Bronx, NY. That night we slept in another parent-pad and enjoyed the company of some French tough-guy enthusiasts. Check out their band ARKAUS if you're into that kind of thing.

The next morning began an odyssey across southern Europe: we awoke in Toulose, drove to the French Riviera where we swam in the Mediterranean at Narbonne, then hopped in the van, drove to Marseilles where we played a basement once used by the French Resistance in WWII (there was still radio equipment mounted into the wall), then we got right in the van and drove straight through to Venezia where we got our tourist on pretty hard, then back into the van to Koper, Slovenia where we swam in the wonderful Adriatic, and then, finally, into the van for a final time for a drive to Ljubljana where we played a cool squat and finally, finally got to sleep. Shout outs to my boys Lukow and Rog (maybe Rok?) and Sanja for being super accomodating and making great dinner.

The next day we awoke feeling well rested and drove through absolutely stunning surroundings to Prague where we played a really cool show and hung out pretty hard. Prague is, in fact, as beautiful as everyone says it is. Despite the group getting separated in a peak tourist location, we did manage to find one another and return, once again, to the van.

Yesterday it was a quick drive from Prague to Dresden with a short interruption by the German Border Police, but we told them to fuck off and they did. Well, not exactly, but we did escape unscathed. We were supposed to play AZ Conni, another squat, but their summer construction is not yet finished and so our brave promoter, Born, moved the show to a practice studio across town. Luckily it effected the draw not one iota and we played perhaps my favorite show of tour.

Now I head to breakfast to eat something and prepare for Leipzig tonight, Hohenstein-Ernsthal tomorrow, and then home the day after that...

Nurnberg, Darmstadt, Muhlheim, Ieper

So it's been awhile since we had reliable access to internet AND time in which to write an update; apologies. The past few days have been pretty excellent and we're stoked to be hanging in Europe. Nurnberg show was in a massive old building that was part of the medieval city wall. Thanks very much to our new friend Verina for putting us up in her apartment and letting us hang hard.

Darmstadt was in a massive old mansion that was donated to the punx by a generous old lady, or so the story went. We finally got to play on a floor again and shredded hard. Copious amounts of food was made available to us which we were grateful for.

Muhlheim was in an AZ (autonomous zone aka squat) and was awesome. The space was cool and the food was incredible! The chef (who's name I forgot) even gave us a bunch of Apfelkuchen to take on the road. I love tour. That night found us back at Rik's in Antwerp. Love that guy.

Tonight was Ieper. We played on a big stage in front of a ton of people. Other cool bands like Touche Amore and Soul Control played as well. Many heavy hangs were had, new friends made, Jeff pitted to Sheer Terror and Strife (who were awesome, by the way).

It kind of goes without saying that we're having the time of our lives here and don't want to stop. Europe, on the whole, has been super supportive and generous to us. It does make the US seem amateurish in a lot of ways... not to be too critical of my home, but there's something incredibly refreshing about spending time in a place where people aren't entirely burnt out and jaded. No need to dwell, life is good.

Karlsrühe, Deutschland

First of all, shout outs to two Germans who we gave the blog address to last night. Sorry we forgot your names! Enjoy the tunes!

So anyway last night was a bigger show with The Carrier and All Teeth from the US. It was definitely not our typical show, but we still had a lot of fun. Lukas made some excellent vegan schnitzel that we ate all of. I think that the audience enjoyed Jeff's onstage humor and I was told that my onstage German isn't too bad. All in all a good time. Thanks to Marco and Max for putting us up and making Frühstuck for us.

In Nürnberg now, Jeff and I hard-styled on Hitler's podium. You know, the one from Triumph of the Will? Pictures later.

Tschüss!