a good friend of ours just launched this site called “pickrset.com,” on which you can vote for your favorite songs for bands to play during their live shows. you can find the +44 page here, and vote on which songs you think we should be playing during our set, and we will “take it under advisement.” which means that we probably won’t follow it to the letter, but we won’t completely ignore it either. and if you have a band of your own you can post the dates of your upcoming shows and song titles and have people voting on which songs you should be playing. cool.

i got an iphone today. and it totally rules. completely. thanks, todd! stoked.

last night, vancouver witnessed a first. the man at the one’s and two’s behind the desk during paul wall’s set was none other than our very good friend james ingram. yes, that james. from the morning zoo. from the recently having two heart attacks james. a year ago james was getting our coffees. and now he is onstage running the dj booth for paul wall and skinhead rob. and in a month he will be getting us all coffees once again. if you want to leave a message of congratulations for james, you can do so at his myspace page, right here. here are are some photos i took of the momentous occasion.

after we get back from this tour, i’m heading into the studio to produce the next socratic album. we’ve been talking about it for a while, and they sent me their new demos. their songs are really rad. i’m looking forward to recording the album. also been talking to a few other bands, and hopefully will have time between the upcoming +44 tours to record a few other things as well. that’s what’s up.

last week, after the honda civic tour concert in houston, expensive taste had their first show ever at a club downtown. the place was packed. there was a huge line outside. paul, rob and travis warmed up in the small room behind the stage, and i documented the event in photos. the room was filled with smoke. this being their first live performance, they had to figure out which songs to play, and run through a couple of quick rehearsals before walking out and performing them. rob wrote out the set list. travis warmed up on his practice pad. paul typed on his sidekick. everyone was laughing and talking. friends and family came by to say hello and wish them luck. then it was time to play.

the show was awesome. they played six songs. people were singing along, dancing. bun b and slim thug both came out for guest appearances. the entire show was filmed. everyone had a great time. at the end of the night we all drove back to our bus at the ampitheater, with shane drunk in the very back of the escalade, threatening to wet his pants if we didn’t pull over for him to use the restroom. we didn’t pull over.