Even though we are kicking ass in Radio Crystal Blue's annual airplay vote it would be great if y'all could continue to vote for us (as you can every day through April 25) because it's not just about winning bracket #12... it's about total and complete popularity contest domination. Bwa ha ha ha, etc. If you're wondering where everybody from Brooklyn went, it's Beefstock this weekend. I personally have a commitment here in the daytime tomorrow so compelling that I'm missing way too much of the action and just getting up to Full Moon for Saturday evening and our set around 10pm. In fact, I'm so heroically over-booked, that I called upon the Co-President of our Fan Club for assistance as my driver racing up from the city to the Catskills. That's right: Mom. Everyone else is upstate already, bundled in their Easter wool-sweaters and just getting into the roster of 25+ bands. Since my last updating, Ian has recorded his guitars for "No Exceptions" and "Smug Ugly." I love the semi-muted way he plays his riff in No E, and unsurprisingly Smugly is a masterpiece of nuvo-swamp Tele-visionary sound-effect guitar talking. We're at the stage where all four of us have "progress report" CDs of the entire third record, although one track is still just basic tracking day and two others also don't have vocal tracks. 6 songs are well-near finished: mixing, keys, percussion and go. Still, recently I've been thinking about maybe releasing a limited edition ep for the UK tour this October. Maybe 2-3 tracks of the new, plus our X-mas '06 single, and one or some live Eddies. Part oddball, part preview. I think I'd like that. Then the full record winter '08. The other week we had the pleasure of seeing a kicking Robyn Hitchcock with the Venus 3 show . It was a tremendous set, and the best Robyn sound outside the Soft Boys that I've heard. I also had fun watching several friends and compatriots enjoy the show down below from our perspective in the balcony of the Knitting Factory. We spotted bass player Scott McCaughey having dinner before the show at South's , but with uncharacteristic restraint we didn't interrupt him. Ian ran into guitarist and R.E.Member Peter Buck on a trip to the Men's room, and they got to talking about their shared love of the jangles, and how 12-strings are really barely enough strings really if you think about it, so that was the umpteenth celebish CD hand-off which always feels nice, especially if seem intrigued and sincere that they want to listen to it (or at least the Kim Cover). Last Saturday there was a little incident in the form of a monumental Paula Carino birthday party. Held at Wombat's, with entertainment by Crash Course Karaoke the bash was of epic proportions. At the height, I finally fulfilled a wish to sing with Steve Goulding on drums. He's quite a basher! Word is our "White Rabbit" stole the show, which is actually humbling to hear as I'd never want to usurp another super star's party. Although I know all is square, I'm still adapting to get my mind around how good we've all actually become. I guess it's inevitable if you have the natural seed to drive you to practice and dream and be it all the time for these last years and years. Crazy to be able to influence people so strongly through performance, yet it's what we work towards. Oh well, at least I wasn't the person passed out, sick blocking all over the upstairs bathroom. Or the guy making the same use of the sink. Told you, it was *quite* a party.