SOUTHERN CALIFORNIANS: DONUT FRIEND IS OPEN!

I know I gushed about it before, but DONUT FRIEND is now officially open! Radical music producer Mark Trombino's donut shop will be serving donuts with takes on all of your favorite bands. I have no idea which one i'm going to get first... Chocolate from the Crypt? Fudgegazi? Jimmy Eat Swirl?  SO MUCH GOOD STUFF! They also have a custom donut option, where you can select a pre-made donut and add whichever fillings and toppings you like. It's a dream, man.

 it's open now, from 8am-2pm everyday except Mondays. Hopefully we make it up there this weekend to try it out!  read more about it here!

RECORD STORE DAY EVERY DAY.

Down in my computer/music/art room, I've got a nice little turntable setup where I keep my vinyl collection. similar to my musical instruments down there, I like the kids to know they're welcome to play around down there and look through records, listen to 'em, and mess with knobs... as long as they're respectful :) I'm hoping that it helps instill an appreciate of music and record collecting when they get a little bigger. 

we'll see!

this past weekend Cooper and I decided to celebrate Record Store Day with a trip into the craziness up to Fingerprints record store in Long Beach. Although we missed the complete craziness when the store opened up at 6am, we made it up around 4pm. Our good friend Robb was nice to enough to get us in to see Jimmy Eat World play an acoustic set. 






We each decided to pick a record up to commemorate the day. I grabbed the new Kurt Vile LP, and I may have convinced Coop that the cover art on the Night Marchers / Mrs. Magician split 7" for Record Store Day was a good thing to grab. 

Coop dug the first song Jimmy Eat World played, but was soon askin "are we gonna leave soon?" honestly, i'm just glad that he decided to go with me! so we grabbed our records, picked up a milkshake (a reward for being awesome, in addition to the 7" of course) and hit the road back home. Someday, when he's older it'll be cool to remind him... "remember when you were 5, and we went to go see Jimmy Eat World on Record Store Day?"

Makin memories. 



oh, and here's a rad video teaser for the new Kurt Vile record. His kid is in it, too!

*top pic of me and Coop by Jen MacLean!

LET'S GET DONUTS

Back in my "touring days", it was always a pleasant surprise to see we would be playing or passing through Portland, Oregon... not because of a rad venue, or a great crowd or anything.. but because it's home to one of my favorite donut shops ever, VOO DOO DOUGHNUTS. The place has a rad vibe with a voo doo worthy decor, and the donuts are insane creations dreamed up by pastry visionaries. Sure they've got the normal faves, but they've created donuts like the VOO DOO DOLL (chocolate frosted, jelly filled donuts with a pretzel stake), CAPTAIN MY CAPTAIN (a vanilla frosted donut covered with Captain Crunch cereal), the BACON MAPLE BAR (a maple bar with real bacon on top), plus a bunch of VEGAN options. It's very cool, but unfortunately I haven't made it up that way with the family yet... 

here's a button we made for the occasion

But life just got a little bit better. Mark Trombino, a music producer responsible for records by Jimmy Eat World, Drive Like Jehu, Motion City Soundtrack (who are also big fans of the donut), Blink-182, Rocket from the Crypt, and a million others, will soon by opening a DONUT SHOP. aaaaaaand, it's in LOS ANGELES. yep, it's called DONUT FRIEND, and according to their blog it looks like they'll may be open by summer time! Now I know, you're sayin.. "ok, he can make a great record, but can he make donuts?" well, I don't have the answer for you yet, BUT, just by looking at the menu and the grip of amazingly named donuts, I think you'll have equally high hopes. From the Promise Ring, to Chocolate from the Crypt, to the Gorilla Biscuit, it looks like these are gonna be awesome. How could you go wrong naming donuts after a handful of my favorite bands. 

Did I mention you can BUILD YOUR OWN? and they have VEGAN options?  

So yeah, get stoked, check out the menu, and meet my and my little dudes there to grab a FUDGEGAZI or a GG ALMOND. 


On that note, I'll leave you with one of my favorite videos of FUGAZI.