We’d arranged to meet the rest of the gang in Williamsburg for breakfast but me and Al were pretty peckish when we woke so we ate the Whole Foods leftovers from the day before (fried egg in a croissant – it’s not been a health food trip). Then we hopped on the Metro for a [...]

Alan and I spent the first hour of the day searching for a classic diner to eat a classic New York breakfast of pancakes, maple syrup and crispy bacon. We finally found a suitable place called Life Cafe on Avenue B and East 10th. We got back to the hotel to find the other lads [...]

It was strange leaving Austin. Although we’d only been there for less than six days, it felt a lot longer. We’d really started to settle in and the ‘crayfish boil’ on Sunday had made us feel right at home. But we had gigs to play in New York, so there was nothing for it but [...]

Saturday - it’s our official showcase today - our last gig in the Lone Star State. I’m quite glad actually. It’s been great fun here at ‘Sooth by’ but you do grow a bit tired of hearing the constant mash of pompous, strident guitars and yappy vocals coming at you from every angle.
We decide [...]

After the gig at the British Music Embassy we were dragged off by Muslim (producer for Vic Galloway and Huw Stephens, BBC Radio 1). He wanted to do a little feature with us called ‘Austin Found’ . . . the premise was that we had to scour the streets looking for objects that we could make sounds [...]

Yesterday is a bit of a blur. It was definitely the craziest day yet.
It began well, with a fantastic Mexican breakfast in a local diner – we all had different variations of huevos rancheros and breakfast tacos washed down with large mugs of Oaxacan coffee. This is where things started to go a little weird. That coffee [...]

On my life - this really happened.
Rachel, our host out here in Austin, runs an art gallery called Lombardi. On Thursday we went to the opening of a show she’d curated featuring an LA artist called Shepard Fairey. There was a break dancing competition going on outside. We stood and watched it for a [...]

The heat’s really intense here so we decided we weren’t going to do too much trekking around with our gear. We rode the bus into town and went straight to Fado’s, the Irish bar we were going to be playing. They have a nice beer garden / yard along the side with a little stage [...]

We’ve now been in Austin for a full day and are beginning to acclimatise. Our 20 hour journey was surprisingly smooth and we made it through immigration and customs in Newark Liberty airport without the grilling that I’d been fearing . . . except for a light fingering.
It’s going to take a while to get [...]