Hello September!

trophyboys — 2008-09-03T12:06:00Z

Wow I can't believe how quickly the summer flew by! It's already September, and although I'm sitting here on my bed in my apartment in California in a false sense of peacefulness, things are actually REALLY crazy busy in Camp Plain White T's. We have the month "off" from tour, but the brand new album Big Bad World comes out on SEPTEMBER 23, which means for the band a lot of press and promo business. You can expect to see them on a handful of TV appearances this month (ABC Family's Greek, Leno, Good Morning America, Pepsi Smash, and MTV's Video Music Awards to name a few...) as well as a quick trip back to London at the end of the month for more promo there (the new album comes out in Europe in October).

Pre-order the CD at Smartpunk.com and get an exclusive free t-shirt!

Speaking of Europe, we just got back from our European "So Last Summer" Tour a few days ago. Europe tours for me always sort of drag on, but I think we had a really good run this time around. It's always nice to be over there this time of year when the weather is a bit better than normal, not so gloomy and cold. Our headlining club shows were a bit smaller than usual because we were going to cities we had never been to before - Stockholm, Copenhagen, Prague, Luxembourg City to name a few. I met a lot of a really nice people at the merch table, and I'm amazed again and again at how well everyone can speak English. Makes me feel like such a dumb American only being able to speak English (okay, I actually do speak a bit of Japanese as well, but that doesn't usually help me in Europe haha). We played a lot of HUGE festivals while we were there. Pukkelpop in Belgium was by far my favorite, it was a beautiful day, the backstage area and catering were amazing, I got to see some amazing bands (Sigur Ros and MGMT!), and I had a few drinks and got to let loose, which I don't usually do very often on tour.

Plain White T's @ Pukkelpop Fest

MGMT @ Pukkelpop Fest

We also played Leeds and Reading.... not as good of a reception by the crowd (they were all there to see Metallica, Tenacious D, Slipknot -who cancelled-, and Avenged Sevenfold -who also cancelled-), but regardless of all the bottles and mud that got thrown on stage at the band I think we all had a really good time. The guys were prepared to dodge bottles and walked off stage laughing. There was even a circle pit and "wall of death" during Hey There Delilah, courtesy of the Metallica fans in the crowd. I saw some of them singing along though, they can't deny it.

So now I'm back in California for the week. On Monday I'm flying to Hawaii to visit my family for a week. I haven't been back since March so it will be really nice to see my parents and my grandmother and sleep in the bed I grew up in. I'm also particularly excited for this trip home because my mom and I are going to the Humane Society to look at dogs! My beloved Golden Retriever Kona died last April at the age of 13, and our other dog Skippy just died this year, he was 14. Our house has been too quiet for too long, the dogs made it easy for my parents to cope with my being away at college. I'm an only child so the dogs were like more kids for them. My dad says he doesn't mind the quiet, but I know they both miss having the dogs around and I definitely don't like how quiet the house has been this past year. We're going to look at shelters first to see if we can rescue two dogs who otherwise might be humanely euthanized due to not finding a home. I really recommend everyone do this first when finding a pet. If you end up going to a pet store or breeder to find a new pet, be sure you do research on the store first. Puppy farms are one of the most horrifying forms of animal cruelty that exists today.

Kona in 2005

Later this month Plain White T's are playing a charity show in Novato, CA (NorCal) with Third Eye Blind! I grew up listening to Third Eye Blind but I've never seen them play, so I'm super excited. You can buy tickets for this show here: http://www.rocknbluesbythelake.com/tickets.asp. Proceeds from the show go to help fund public schools in Northern California.

Rock Band Live Tour starts October 5th! I've been planning some killer merch for the tour, so I hope everyone's saving up their money haha. Plain White T's will have a few headlining one-off shows during the tour:

10-25 Clifton Park, NY @ Northern Lights
10-27 Portland, ME @ The Station
11-05 Tallahassee, FL @ Floyd's Music Store

Last but not least, my friends in the band LOVEDRUG are releasing a new record on October 28. I'm actually listening to it right now and it's amazing. You may have seen them on tour with us in 2006, for me it was a huge honor to have one of my favorite bands play with the T's every night. You can listen to three new songs on their myspace: http://www.myspace.com/lovedrug.

Good luck to all of you who started high school or college classes recently! I know school is a drag, but you'll kind of miss it once it's all over... I promise!

I'll leave you with this last photo...

Plain White T's band and crew
Konstanz, Germany
So Last Summer Tour - Europe 2008

Joe Jonas?

trophyboys — 2008-09-01T09:37:01Z

When I came home from tour in July there was a Jonas Brothers poster on my door courtesy of my roommate KT. When I came home from tour last night, there was a life-size Joe Jonas wall decal hiding behind my door. It scared the CRAP out of me this morning when I turned on my light haha.

Band and Crew

trophyboys — 2008-08-31T22:44:04Z

So Last Summer Tour - Europe 2008

Plain White T's @ Rock Am See Fest

trophyboys — 2008-08-31T22:42:19Z

Plain White T's @ Rock en Seine Fest

trophyboys — 2008-08-31T21:08:29Z

Luxembourg City

trophyboys — 2008-08-31T21:07:50Z

Tom and Venezia walking to city center

Luxembourg City

trophyboys — 2008-08-31T21:06:18Z

Mike and Tim walking from our hotel to city center

Luxembourg City

trophyboys — 2008-08-31T21:04:32Z

Plain White T's @ Reading Festival, England

trophyboys — 2008-08-27T03:55:31Z

Tim describing their performance at Reading Festival 2008

Wiesbaden, Germany

trophyboys — 2008-08-25T13:52:58Z

Dave stays ruff

Wiesbaden, Germany

trophyboys — 2008-08-25T13:51:57Z

Haha

Wiesbaden, Germany

trophyboys — 2008-08-25T13:50:45Z

Wiesbaden, Germany

trophyboys — 2008-08-25T13:49:49Z

Wiesbaden, Germany

trophyboys — 2008-08-25T11:47:51Z

Wiesbaden, Germany

trophyboys — 2008-08-25T11:46:38Z

Wiesbaden, Germany

trophyboys — 2008-08-25T11:45:48Z

Wiesbaden, Germany

trophyboys — 2008-08-25T11:30:19Z

Wiesbaden, Germany

trophyboys — 2008-08-25T11:25:56Z

Plain White T's @ Highfield Fest, Germany

trophyboys — 2008-08-18T08:29:29Z

Just a clip from "Revenge" - the crowd was pretty rad that night

Sigur Ros @ Lowlands Fest, Netherlands

trophyboys — 2008-08-18T07:57:04Z

I know you can barely see the band in this photo, but I just wanted to have an example of how huge and well put-together these tents and stages are at these enormous European festivals.

Buzznet: All Media by trophyboys

Hello September!

Joe Jonas?

Band and Crew

Plain White T's @ Rock Am See Fest

Plain White T's @ Rock en Seine Fest

Luxembourg City

Luxembourg City

Luxembourg City

Plain White T's @ Reading Festival, England

Wiesbaden, Germany

Wiesbaden, Germany

Wiesbaden, Germany

Wiesbaden, Germany

Wiesbaden, Germany

Wiesbaden, Germany

Wiesbaden, Germany

Wiesbaden, Germany

Wiesbaden, Germany

Plain White T's @ Highfield Fest, Germany

Sigur Ros @ Lowlands Fest, Netherlands