En route to denver

we just finished driving across the entire state of Iowa. Amber waves of grain, yo. Interstate 80 all the way from Iowa city to Lincoln, Nebraska where our nest show is, after tonight, we get another much needed day off to rest and regenerate before the 7 + hour drive to Denver CO where we play at 3 Kings (we played there two years ago on our first tour, when we were graciously hosted by one of the members of Planes Mistaken for Stars - I'd like to mention that this time around, when in Chicago, another member of Planes - Garret - treated us to an incredible home-cooked mexican dinner that blew us all away and left us speechless.).

The sun has been shining all day, beautiful driving weather, t-shirts and sunglasses, rolling fields & lots of windmills (more than I remember last year!) which stand incredibly tall in the landscape and appear to spin really fast for their size. I find them to be kinda terrifying in a beautiful way - I guess that's textbook sublime - the way something so huge can move so fast, it's unsettling to such small creature. I'm happy they're there, though & they're fun to videotape.

I've been shooting lots of vids & taking pics, maybe this year I'll have the time to make a proper tour doc… I also have lots of 8mm movie film from 2008 that I never had the money to develop, but now I do!

cars make dramatic dust clouds on side roads along the highway, I imagine peeling through those roads can make you feel like you're in an action movie, even if you are just driving to the store to pick up birdseed.

Lincoln nebraska has a little coffee shop with cute friendly baristas and lots of space to camp out and do the internet and draw and kill time. We are all looking forward to nesting in this place and relaxing. Something I NEVER do in New York, for sure. That's one of the coolest things about touring, you get to experience down-time, which I know only by name, myth, and faint memory these days. having a moment to just sit and reflect during the day is now a major luxury for me. Funny how all the little pie pieces of an ideal existence are always shifting - money, time, relaxation, good health, sexiness;), friends, good job you like to work at, time for yourself, solid spiritual / inner constitution, etc….. well, down-time ain't one mine, I traded it for larger pieces of other pies.

The number of hardwood floors these warriors hath laid upon, like grains of sand on the beach, like stars in the sky,
for their hearts doth open wide like great baleen baskets,
through which pour both the krill of fortune and folly,
we are merely hungry, for neither ebb nor flow, yin nor yang, marsh-mellow nor marble,
deliver us life's full spectrum, so that time's vesper-tine light waves goodbye to well-rounded stories,
dreams and nightmares, well-rounded characters, seasoned
by lady luck and her bitter sisters,
we love them all one and the same.

Billowing live in Detroit

Sorry I don't think the last link I posted worked...

A little suprise outro here... it's nice to go crazy and rock out the end!

Saturday 10/2/2010
thoughts on the roadside world
driving across the midwest, en route to chicago & listening to strange new music.
There are huge weather fronts moving against us, we have been driving in rain all day from detroit, and it is now beginning to break. I can see brilliant rays of sun streaming through rolling grays and pale gold. But its all pale, there is no sharp high-contrast coastal color, the saturation of 5:30pm is very low, almost grayscale.
We pass a dead raccoon on the road. A church, depots, rural commerce.

I think about the intense social experience of the city, our godless intellectual dense webs of people and jobs and interactions. Out here there is god, liquor, tradition, autumnal swaths of land, duty, distance, mindless violence, beautiful human talents and graces twisted into a sparse landscape that might echo the dawn of human time.

You can go a whole day without seeing another person, even if you desperately want to see someone.

All of the food on the road is filled with sugar and chemicals. Progress is slow, a blind eye meets corporate exploitation, and enthusiasm for innovation is a flea pulling an oxcart.

Last night we played at the trumbleplex, which is a beautiful wooden warehouse with dangling Christmas lights and a big stage… felt like a giant barn in a good way. I videotaped the set, hopefully by the time I post this I'll have a link to some songs!
P.S. Billowing LIVE at the trumbleplex 10.1.2010 !!!!!

U.S. Tour with Ghastly City Sleep! no.1

Hello everyone!
I am in detroit right now. We played our three-piece set last night at Hybrid Moments record shop. I got to see Matthew's noise set, which was wonderful. lots of tape machines hissing and blipping, really sweet textures.
Tonight we play our big rockin' set with Ryan from Darkest Hour, who we will be picking up form the airport momentarily. Ryan has brought a ton of fresh energy to the group and has had some great ideas that have seriously changed the way we play. our current set features some new arrangements of songs from moondrifts that really make me feel like I'm cut free from the tethers of click tracks and electronic beat backing tracks that have come to define ghastly's sound in the past few years. The result is something more organic, more expressive, & more fun! I don't think I've ever been this excited about our set!
Photos are forthcoming!
TOUR PHOTOS HERE!

maps

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&vps=1&jsv=235a&msa=0&output=georss&...

Friend neglects to read friend's blog, fiance guilty too.

Recently, a friend, neglecting to read friend's blog, sent an email to said friend about a piece of news which was previously blogged about in said friend's blog. Talk about sailing right into a storm! Said friend preceded to call the friend out on this redendant and embarassing mishap, only to expose said friend's fiance's simultaneous neglect of said friend's recent blog-abouts = double-whammy.
The moral of this story? When you have a frind who authors a blog (and it's a good blog) and you know about 40% of said friend's news sources written about on said blog, do everyone a favor and visit that blog prior to informing said friend of interesting articles you find on said news sources.
Next time you want to share said articles, consider posting a link to said friend's blog on facebook instead.