END OF YEAR ROUNDUP

2025 is over!

First things first: thank you to everyone who attended/played/ran door/hosted a Collective Groan show this year.

I realize I did less this year booking-wise than in past years but in my defense I also played like ~45 shows this year. That's like a show a week the entire year - which is kind of a lot for someone who ostensibly does other things with their time. I realize those are rookie numbers to a lot of people but to me it's a lot.  I did not have the time/energy to put into booking good shows for touring bands -  something I hope to remedy in the new year. Hoping to construct more of a booking/show running team so I don't feel like I have to be the point person every time a cool touring band comes around. I also straight up got way fewer booking emails this year. Touring is getting more and more expensive, and while underground music feels like it's on such an upswing the actual reality of diy touring is getting a little harder every year, especially true on the west coast where everything is far away from everything else.

Ollie and I have big plans for Collective Groan in 2025 including a website and a comp and maybe finally some zines (I put out the last one at the start of 2023 lmfao). Excited to do more in the coming year!

The best show I booked this year was for the band Jousting from Portland at headquarters. not nearly enough people attended for whatever reason but the bands were all fucking phenomenal. 

The best show i played this year with Hidden Driver was in San Jose California. it was in a dim sum restaurant and my friends in the band Yipee! were there and my friend Chris was there and booked it. It ruled

The best show I played this year with Foxglove was at Left Bank Books in Seattle. Very full circle but I've already written about it on here. 

    All in all I spent close to 80 days this year at shows (and I'm probably forgetting some), with so many additional days recording and practicing. Every time I think this shit is starting to wear on me I play a show that just reaffirms everything I love about doing this with my life. I have met so many amazing and beautiful and interesting and kind people playing underground music I genuinely cannot imagine getting this same level of connection out of any other interest. It's the little conversations with people you meet once and maybe never see ever again - they stick with you. It's about the off putting performance artist you meet in nyc, the blackout drunk grandma's who wander into the gig off the street, the weird garage rock guys who won't make eye contact with you, my freshman year roommate who I haven't seen in four years coming to the gig in an entirely different state. These people are all main characters in their own lives and it is such a blessing to know them, however briefly. 

as artists (especially people who make indie/emo shit) we spend a lot of time navel gazing - diy touring is a great way to get the fuck out of that mindset - while still singing songs that posit that it is important that other people know yr bummed out. 

    I did spend more of this year pretty sad than maybe any other year but perhaps that's recency bias and actually being able to talk about it with people without feeling intense shame. Nothing awful happened to me this year either its really just a general malaise/loneliness that's been getting to me. Not really sure what to do about that but it was a pretty defining feature of the year for me. My therapist told me to talk about my feelings more but I find it much easier to write them down in a glib way on a blog no one reads so that's why this is here instead. 

I went on four little tours this year, three weekenders and one full west coast. I am so fucking happy to have done this and hoping for more next year if I can swing it. Hidden Driver remains the best feeling band I have ever been in and I hope we can keep it together for years to come. Foxglove is such a blast to be in even if those weird guys drive me nuts, and it was an honor ripping two gigs with Special Moves Band. I am sad Josh moved to Richmond but such is the way of indie rock. 

I put out three real releases this year:

s/t ep - foxglove

pink eye blues - scrawlers

labyrinthine - foxglove

This year I started reading again in earnest. Here's what I read:

1. the dispossessed - ursula k le guin
2. slaughterhouse five (re-read) - kurt vonnegut
3. ain't it fun - aaron lange
4. breakfast of champions - kurt vonnegut
5. east of eden - john steinbeck
6. lord of light - roger zelazny
7. homeland - barbarba kingsolver
8. nightwood - djuna barnes
9. v - thomas pynchon
10. midaq alley - naguib mahfouz

here are some favorites of the year:

most listened-to physical record this year: radio ethiopia - patti smith

most listened-to tape this year: sequin dream - invisible rays

album i loved the most this year: radio ddr - sharp pins

2025 album i loved the most: the brightest silver fish - léna bartels

best local record this year: gun - ket cat

best seattle band: friends of the road 

best tacoma band: bobby soxxer

other records i liked this year were:

- 30% off - 14g

- sobby boxxer - bobby soxxer

- cotton crown - the tubs

- dreaming - be afraid

- balloon balloon balloon - sharp pins

- ep - in a beautiful place out in the country

- my friend my urn / stitching split 7"

- s/t - time thief

- this is my first heist - my point of you

- beautiful extension cord - (t-t)b

my new years resolutions are thus:

- stop watching tv shows entirely (includes anime, unrealistic)

- read twenty books 

- write a couple really great songs

- listen to music at work less ("cultivate silence" lmfao)

- become more emotionally available and better equipped to deal with conflict

things i hope happen this year but mostly aren't up to me

- i win a significant amount of money on scratchers

- i fall in love and it works out however it's meant to

- i finally connect with house music

cleveland (tacoma) rocks

- hugh

FALL BEGINS

 Hey all, 

booking is slowing down quite a bit for me - currently the only thing I have on the horizon is the time thief show 9/29 at headquarters with mini golf water feature and wavers. very excited for this one - the last time james walsh played tacoma was over six years ago now with their prior band DUMP HIM from massachusetts so i am very excited for their return. truly one of my favorite people i have met through music, very stoked to hang! this is gonna be a really good one. 

Next couple shows are in the new year so I won't talk about them yet!

Here's what's up with me!

I am back from hidden driver tour! and really bummed about it!

eleven days on the road with mini golf water feature, to san diego and back! had so so much fun and I got to see so many friends. I could write a whole tour diary but i won't so here are some highlights:

• I took everyone to a swimming hole in southern oregon on our way to arcata. It is the greatest swimming hole of all time potentially so I won't blow it up but come find me if u want to know. lovely.
•  arcata show was in a shed next to large cow pasture. the cows did not rock with us very much but the show turned into a very large party. i'm too straight edge to have enjoyed it to the fullest but everyone else was having fun and I thought no one was going to show up at all so overall a positive experience
• san jose. man. heavy lemon crew are diy heroes. so happy we got to play with yipee! (my friends aaron ponzo and elijah stoll!). so great to see chris again. we played in a dim sum restaurant and it rocked. 
• san diego. are people just hotter in southern california? is it because they get sunshine year round or are there other factors going on? everyone was very nice and beautiful and i was blown away by limping. also i got in the pacific ocean for the first time in my entire life. 
• santa cruz. subrosa is so sick. we stayed with nicks mom and her dog kiki has one eye and is deaf and is so so cute. 
• sparks. the kids are alright man. both bands we played with could not have been older than sixteen. they were so stoked on music. the drummer for the first band looked like the kid from gummo. crashed in a campsite in northeastern california and visited petroglyph point the next morning.

uhhhhh what else is good. 

• worked on the hidden driver LP a little more!
• foxglove ep is basically done and is imo very good! out soon!
• I wrote and recorded another three song ep for SCRAWLERS, a goofy rock and roll punk band that exists entirely in my head. you can listen to it HERE

HERES WHATS UP WITH ME

i'll get this out of the way first: 

this is happening next thursday. very stoked to see apples with moya again. booked for the pdx homies grolixes. bar gig 21+ sorry.

. the previously posted bobby soxxer and jousting show is happening this thursday. ket cat had to drop off that one (they r maybe breaking up?) and was replaced with daffodil motel. 

in other news, i am playing a ton of shows this summer, perhaps way too many! Next week I am playing bass for my friend josh's long running twee pop punk solo project special moves. these shows are in seattle august 5th at drongo hq with neutral shirt, malasada, and shermy // and olympia at decay with neutral shirt, malasada, and subterranean maw (fka posy/maybe is a diff band altogether). 

I am also playing august 10th with foxglove at real art tacoma with fucking beau navire. insane. we also tracked a 4 song ep which should be out soon,

There's a few more i don't feel like writing about on here but w/e. i am a little worried i'm playing too many shows this summer to really do other shit like camping and hanging out and being out of the city but also i do this shit bc i love it. been pretty bummed out outside of shows recently, like actually pretty sad (this is not a particularly normal occurrence for me) but i think its maybe fine. i'm still making my commitments and brushing my teeth and meal prepping so i can't be doing that bad? ill discuss with my therapist later i suppose.

what i am very excited for and nervous about is the hidden driver and mini golf water feature tour that begins 8/26 in olympia now (not on flyer) with mike huguenor (jeff rosenstock, shinobu) and fastener. very excited to see my friends! specifically i am stoked to see my friends theo and willard and ian downie in los angeles california :) 

v stoked to kick it on the beach with my best friends

DON'T SHOOT DON'T SHOW

 no gigs to announce here just updating my blog to talk about screamo. 

the other night 6/20 i played one of the best sets of my life at left bank books with foxglove but i'll talk about that in a sec. 

on 6/8 i got to do guest vocals with miscomings at the 2nd night of portraits of past at black lodge. power strip also played and it was so nuts that those two bands were chosen for that night. shit rocked. it's insane to me that portraits in 20-30 years older than most of the kids in bands right now and put on a better and more energetic show than most. truly like a set full of love. one of those bands that reunited this year that i don't think is a cash grab unlike many. lots of love on that stage. was actually so special to get to see them live. 

I joined my friend josh's band special moves on bass recently which I am pretty excited about - think like westerbergy pop punk through a pollard 4 track filter with some twee bedroom shit going on. very fun. i had been into special moves before I even knew josh so it is an honor to play all these songs with him and cecelia. we are playing a few shows with neutral shirt in august if all goes well.

my tomatoes are doing pretty well. not overwatering this year. already seeing some flowers and fruit but obv its pretty early so i'm not getting my hopes up. 

my cat is worm free. 

foxglove has a cool tacoma gig 8/10 that's not announced yet. I'm supposed to make a flyer and should do so soon. 

anyway

foxglove got to play left bank books in seattle on friday with ...anditsnamewasepyon (LA/BOS), rosemarynodsuponthegrave (savannah) and the names of our friends (pdx). it was so so sick. absolutely beautiful cool night in seattle, grey. was crazy playing in pike place and seeing all these tourists and passersby look in and watch the gig bewildered. what was more crazy was the fact that sofia from AINWE was in the first screamo band i ever saw (she dreamt;she was the sea) and here we both were doing the same shit NINE years later. here is that flyer from the old show. it was also my first time playing in boston (in nick owen's band). 

also present at the gig was alex from infant island, the first screamo band i ever booked back in 2018 w/ soul glo. insane. i also played that gig, filling in on bass for razorwire bouquet. hellena (senza, tnoof, tolls, southtowne lanes) was also obv there and she was in the first screamo band i ever saw on the west coast (senza). also my friend erik was there who was the bassist in my very first ill-fated screamo band. meant a lot. just a very full circle and meaningful night for me, even if it was on the eve of the united states dropping bombs on iran. 

here's the footage of our set:

see u on the next one brothers and sisters.

AIN'T IT FUN WHEN YR TAKIN CARE OF NUMBER ONE

 Hey all! 

Took a couple month break from booking because this summer is about to be fucking insane for me gig-wise. really trying to cut back on booking shows I think in general. I'm playing ten shows this summer in june/july in  tacoma/seattle +  recording the hidden driver LP + going on an 11 day tour in august/september. I do this to myself but to be honest its going to be a LOT. 

have been feeling p bad and generally melancholic recently but at the end of the day can't really complain considering my position in the imperial core. idk man. shit is very very bad worldwide right now - like israel is about to blow up greta thunberg for daring to deliver food to starving people. and people from liberal parties across europe and america cheer this on. pigs are rounding up people all over the country. my belief that most people are good has really gone through the fucking ringer these past few months to the point that I'm not really even sure if I believe that at all anymore. so it goes? but it shouldn't?

listening to a lot of music from cleveland ohio these days thanks to Aaron Lange's excellent book "ain't it fun" which is a graphic esoteric and musical history of cleveland centered around peter laughner from Rocket From the Tombs and Pere Ubu. highly recommend - it's edgy in a p classic white guy alt comics way but I grew up reading my dad's issues of RAW and Amy and Jordan so I'm not really phased by it. Some Ohio standouts: Damnation (of adam blessing), Tin Huey, Pere Ubu, and John Bassette, to name a few.

Re-read Slaughterhouse Five and started Breakfast of Champions in an attempt to get myself reading more - I finished Ursula K Le Guin's The Dispossessed late last month and thought it was excellent if a slow start. 

Was trying to start dating again but I don't know any single people really and the apps make me horribly depressed so putting a pause on that. one of these days love will find me (cue daniel johnston) although truthfully i am starting to doubt the likelihood of this happening in tacoma washington. it's okay.

any way - that's not why yr here. Collective Groan is throwing these shows this summer:

7/12: a porchfest miracle with starbird and dunce on my front lawn in tacoma. 

7/24: star 99 (san jose) / supercrush / sons of ferdinand / hidden driver @ manifesto coffee

7/31 jousting (pdx) / bobby soxxer / ket cat / 14g @ headquarters

8/7: Grolixes (pdx) / Wendell @ new frontier lounge, more tba

Really gonna do this more often I swear

 hey!

been another sec. deleted twitter off my phone and joined freakscene.us which everyone should check out. it's been really rad to find a platform where no ones nonstop promoting their band or trying to get famous, with no ads, no shortform video content, no audio that plays out of fucking nowhere. I missed forums a lot! I was for sure on the tail end of forums as a kid but I was on a bunch of them from 7th-9th grade. I shudder to think what I was posting on there back then, and I will remind people who haven't been on internet forums before who are joining now of this: all of your posts are public on forums. and will remain that way. be careful! its a scary fucking world out there! thankfully, freak scene has been nothing but good vibes so far and I'm listening to all kinds of twee bands I've never heard before and finally listening to crust again. it rules!

I've been kind of putting a pause on booking because i'm not getting hit up as much and am generally trying to focus more on hidden driver this year. last year i feel like i didn't give that band the time and energy it deserves and was also p depressed all summer/fall. feel like i somewhat wasted my 2024 but this year i'm gonna get some serious shit done.

went on a little weekender with hidden driver and minigolf water feature which was really really fun and restored my motivation to work on music. I wanna tour all the time! haven't done nearly enough of it!

SHOWS

That said, the first collective groan show of the year is 3/9 at new frontier lounge (21+ im so sorry but this is what we're rocking with). 

the return of vulture feather (hayfork ca, menacing jangle, mem. of don martin three and wilderness). 

locals: miscomings, hidden driver, and colin seven (of universal order of armageddon jesus christ lol)

NEED TO POST MORE OFTEN

1. i don't post here enough sorry

2. threw a few shows in the past few! 

3. zine incoming soon i promise!

4.  minigolf water feature ep is out these are the homies! the upcoming shit is even better!

Here's what's on the horizon!

Wanda What on tour from the bay area!!!!!! sweet sweet indie rock, just put their new record "dyke tv" out. Ok Bucko is joining them on tour, with bobby soxxer and hidden driver (both tacoma bass vi indie rock bands) supporting! at the best curated vintage store in tacoma!

Spring Breeding and miscomings return from tour!!!! weird as freak punk no wave shit. sh!tomato is noise from seattle who i know nothing about! stoked to hear! hidden driver again!

I swear I don't intentionally book my bands on these most of the time. I get kind of stressed people think collective groan is like an excuse to just throw my band on everything but I actually would love to do that less. Unfortunately there's not that many bands in tacoma that will play anything i ask them to so we tend to hop on shit! 

anyway, I'm doing it again in october (the third to be specific) with my screamo band foxglove because we're the only screamo band with any members in tacoma to my knowledge. flyer coming soon, it's for Othiel and Palefade coming up on tour to Tocsin fest in PDX. it's gonna rule. I love screamo.

That's all for now! Still debating if I wanna do a halloween show!

Here's minigolf playing stupid car! those are my friends!