butchwalker

ALL 3 NY shows sold out! Thank you so much. I will make it worth your while darlings… Butch

Leaving Atlanta for NY now. Too short of a visit in my hometown city. Got to sing some really fun backup vocals and do some handclaps with Darren, Fran, Chris, and JT on one last little number for the new BW&theBW’s record. I’m pretty jazzed on it. Going to Master the record in the Big Apple now and do a photo shoot with my girl Lucia (she did the cover photo for Sycamore Meadows). Going on these short hops always makes me nostalgic and miss my friends in the city. And it also makes me miss playing. Being a producer half the time is a really good deprivation utility because I fucking miss playing and touring and having that… Connection with people. I’m too social to sit behind a console all day and stare at waveforms (although it is the worlds most challenging and dangerous video game). I will see you soon. We got some fun planned for December. Oh yes… Butch

good moooorning ATLANTA! it is weird weather here but i am glad to be home for a few days. Darren, where are you? i am ready for Coffee….

Why is every time I turn around, there’s another Vampire show/Book/Movie/Play/Action Figure? REALLY?????? We need this obsession back after the earl’ 90’s found the perfect stake to drive through this recurrent fads’ heart? I know one thing… You know why its back and bigger than ever? You know who is responsible for it??? One word: COUGARS. I swear, every older woman I know or have read anything about, all wanna “slay the vampire” with one of these 12 year old Suckers. It makes perfect sense. Its like a lawn boy or pool boy… But more pale. It won’t stop. I guess it’ll be around for a fucking long time though because, well, vampires don’t die. And that could keep a fad around for a lot longer. I think I’m gonna start an indie rock band or a music blogsite called COUGARS vs VAMPIRE. Or maybe “Joan Cougar enjoys Vampire Weekend”. Either way, its a win. Butch

This is awesome. Delta is terrible I hate having to be victim to their hub being Atlanta. I can’t escape them. Shitty planes. Shittier people working there. I’m sitting on the runway with mechanical issues with the vessel. I am an aisle guy. Always. Very claustrophobic. Somehow the worlds largest man got my aisle seat and I’m squished against him and a window like the creamy shit in an oreo cookie. Another problem I see a lot of these days over here. Obesity. The other problems I’m having are in the form of 3 redneck fucking mountain-goat fucking assholes sitting in front of me, wearing their old college State football jerseys, bashing the president and mis-pronouncing “Pulitzer”. Yeah, a lot of room for criticism, dildos. I remember my first beer…. Sorry. Had to vent. De-planing now. Have a good night. Butch

I just love flying. I’m sitting on a Delta flight…absolutely the best airline still in business (facetious gun is set to stun right now), headed for the east coast for a week. Family reunion, Atlanta friends visit, and NYC to master the new BW & the BW’s record (respectively in that order). I’m sitting close to a really sweet gentleman with what sounds like Black Lung coming from his mouth every 5 seconds (this is joyous), without any interference from a hand or hanky to block his shit from traveling 130mph into my left nostril. Why do people find Japanese people odd for walking around with the michael jackson mask on when they feel a little under the weather? Its actually fucking polite to worry about getting others sick, whereas here in America, ironically in the First “Class” cabin, there couldn’t be less of it. I’m not sure how this next week is gonna pan out, being that I have black lung and all now, but I mean it when I say this… The new record is damn good. Gonna play it for my friends in ATL-NYC and get that good-ol’ narcissistic feeling deep within my gut again. Yes!!!! Butch

Woke up with this voicemail message on my phone (make sure to listen to the whole thing). Umm… Nancy… You dialed the wrong number.

see you in November…

hurry hurry…

1st night of Residency at The Hotel is sold out. Remaining shows are close. hurry up hurry up…

sunshine you heal

just as much as you hurt

regret in my veins

and blood on my shirt

i sure must have had myself

a personal best

it takes filling my lungs up with smoke to get

things off my chest

crossing the border

wasted again

with her number on a canadian ten

oh mother, oh mother

why do you complain

i grew up alright

so dont be ashamed

my mouth has been cleaner

and i may have lost all my faith

til i believe in myself i

cant give my consience away

youre home with the dishes

and im out with my friends

placing bets with a Canadian ten

i searched for a reason to

not search for you

but i feel ike theres no place/town

i havent been through

i told myself dont fall in love

when you don’t know their/her name

but my eyes are straight-wired to my heart

and just bypass my brain

sometimes I’m forgetful, so I’ll start at the end

and call the number on this canadian ten

I’m not sure what they mean by that song title, but KOL must have a good reason for it, I’m sure. Maybe its Tennessee-an for VD? Either way, it makes for great conversation with strangers at a backstage concert Green Room. Hollywood can be a trip. That’s why I moved out to the country about 50 minutes away.. So I could take it in small doses (I think in my hobbit lifestyle as of late, I maybe go into Halloween/Hollywood maybe 1 night a month.. Lame I know). Where I live, everything closes by 9pm and there’s 1 Starbucks. Things are measured by their footprint on society by how many Starbucks per sqr mile there are. Many people are surprised that this is my lifestyle but I like it. When I stay in Atlanta, its go-time, all the time, so I like to be close to the city out here but not in it. Touring in music venues half the year for the better half of my life, I’d really much rather be in desolation whenever possible. Back to last night. My friend played at Staples Center in LA last night (great fun was had by all), so afterwards we were all shuttled into a backstage Green Room where I would exchange words of wisdom with the likes of a Perez Hilton, an Adam Lambert (the cute, gay guy from Idol), some Radio talk show host that’s apparently almost as famous as Howard Stern, and some fun people that haven’t yet left their mark on pop-culture infested society yet. I asked one guy “how’s it going?” And I realized that this can’t be a rhetorical question that is used lightly with just any ol’ stranger anymore. When I asked him, I got back a barrage of a status report. “Yo man, shits blowin’ up yo.. Blah blah I got 2 new stores opening blah with a new line of blah and grossed blah blah in 6 months blah…….”. “Whoa!!!”, I said. “I asked you HOW you were, not WHAT you were”. And then I walked off by using this “diss”technique I perfected to get out of dreadful conversations. Its where you lift your drink and start to drink it, and while you are in mid-gulp, you lift your other hand and go “hmmm!!!” As if to say “oh shit! I just remembered something I have to do, but I have a mouthful of drink and can’t quite talk”, and you turn and walk away really fast with the drink still pressed to your lips. It really works if u get your flow down.. There seems to be an overwhelming trend to over-justify one’s self to feel better and to feel accepted by someone they feel is in a better position than they are in life. I don’t know if I ever did that when I was younger and more determined. Probably. I’m sorry. I promise, as long as I go out, from now on and someone asks me “how are you?”, I think I will just start reciting the bridge rap to “Going Back/Going Home” on cue… Can u imagine???? That shit looks funny in my head. Love you. Butch

And that new Nickelback came on. God dude! Mellow out.. Joe Nickelback is screaming at me within the first 10 seconds!!

well, i realize the Hallmark subject title is a bit lame, but i had to vent…

i just came back from my friend Al’s memorial last night. Al was a great dude, incredible drummer and even better friend. very selfless, sweet disposition, and had a way of never being or making anyone else feel down. just big smiles all the time. his bandmates (Kevin, Jeremy, and A Jay) were all tight-knit brothers (Jeremy and A Jay by blood), and all grew up together in Fullerton, Ca. they were the same 4 guys that would be in rivaling Hair Metal groups on the Sunset Strip that i would say “hi” to when my Hair Metal group walked down the street with a sack of flyers and a bottle of Gordon’s gin to make promoting our bands to people more entertaining. they would go on to play together under different names, even up to present day, enjoying success as a group that struck a few hits on alt-rock radio (around the same exact time that my old band had one in the late 90’s). i remember bumping into them at a festival in Austin in the late 90’s when we were on the same bill with them. we bonded over the fact that our bands survived the hair metal holocaust and were able to evolve, many years later, into something entirely new and inspiring for us at the time. we (me, Jayce, and Slug from “the Marvelous 3” as we were called) remembered them from our teenage hairsprayed days and had a laugh, then would eventually go on to be good friends and tour mates a few times. i was always so proud of their friendship and bond they had, and even when the Alt-Rock empire crumbled and most bands dissipated or moved on, they still to this day had no motive to be anything other than friends, brothers and bandmates in perpetuity. i thought that was just fucking awesome. at a time when i lost my band of brothers and decided to travel down uncharted waters personally, i envied this love and passion these guys had/have. i couldn’t see how great of a friendship and bond of 15 continuous years i had with my bandmates, due to road, burnout, alcohol abuse and… well.. ego. i had forgotten what it was like to be in a band, and was on a mission to just destroy everything at the risk of losing everyone around me. but enough about ME..

being there last night and seeing the amount of family and friends these guys have, and watching a 2 hour video compiled of interview and timeline footage of Al’s life was engaging, heartwarming, and overall.. just heartbreaking. i sat next to Jeremy and just silently whimpered the whole time with streams of tears going down my cheeks, as i watched these guys laugh every time something funny would be shown or said by Al, or pictures and footage of him with his daughter (and unless you have a kid, then you have NO IDEA how much harder a loss hits you) would play, i felt the bond of these guys. i put my hand on Jeremy’s shoulder as i could see him in his tough-guy facade, tearing up when he was watching a clip of Al playing. he just said “i’m gonna miss him”. i don’t know why that hit me so hard, but i haven’t stopped crying for 2 days about it. i guess it just makes me get out internalized emotions that are things i can relate or commiserate with? i don’t know what i would do if i lost Slug or Jayce. even though we haven’t played in a band together in almost 10 years, i grew up with them, became a man with them, became a real musician because of them, and saw things i would’ve never seen by doing anything other than touring the world for almost 15 years with them.

either way, i just wanted to say how lucky we are all to be here and to have people that love us. if you don’t have someone that does, then let me be the first to say I LOVE YOU.

this is pretty sappy, i know, but i just felt it needed to become letters instead of thoughts.

Rest in Peace Al….

until the next one,

Butch

inspired.

i just saw “It Might Get Loud” at the Landmark cinema on Pico.. it was so good and made me love and realize why i got into music in the first place. i used to watch footage of jimmy page and Zep when i was young, whenever they would come on a public access show on TV called TV 69 (this was pre-internet/cellphone/9-11/perez hilton), and lose my mind at how mysterious and larger than life it was. hard to believe that no magazine or critic would touch them then.. pity what the press never realized and how scared they were of seeming too old to like anything embraced by the young… i just ran out of room and enlarged my text window.. this is gonna be a humdinger…

pardon my italian, but jack white is a bad ass motherfucker. i have always known this, but it solidified my man-crush when i could see his love for the ACT. he is a poser, not a poseur. he knows when the camera is on, and knows what he is gonna say, do, and mug. he will never admit it, but i know. that’s not to say that he isn’t primal. he is the nu-purveyor of impulse. i love him. he will step up and play anything and it will sound great. sloppy but confident. i wish that More artists would possess this. it would make their shows less….hmmm…. boring? i have never been starstruck by many artists. i was playing lollapalooza a couple of years ago (Wolfmother! remember them?) and the Raconteurs were playing. i am friends with a super talented gent by the name of Brendan Benson who is one of the singers and gtr players in the band. he invited me back after they melted my head off from playing a show that looked and felt like it was done in 1974. i sat next to all the guys as they ate beans and drank various assortments. i got introduced to Jack (to my right), and i said “hi. I’m Butch”… a minute went by and people were conversing. he looked back over and said “wait…Butch Walker??”… i nervously said “Yes”.. another 15 seconds went by and then he sheepishly said “oh”…. i have never been so uncomfortable in my life. i still to this day don’t know if it was a good “oh” or a bad “oh”. so weird for me to care about someone i just met, better yet, have been a few years his superior in life and music by a long shot or two. i mean. i wore red and black on Conan before he even wore a white stripe. i felt like a cougar or some shit….

all i know is, i am so full of life, full of recharged goodness and ready to feel music again. i love the new record i have recorded with my band. and i can’t wait to go play these songs, and even songs i wrote years ago. i love this about my job. every once in awhile something comes along to make you feel small, curious, and eager to be the first in line at the record shop (RIP). i think it was my great uncle that said,

“life is full of zits… pop them…”

B

just the beginning is funny. the rest is whatever, but just the intro is great..

hard at work. the Weez!

I am never Blogging anymore!!! What the Twit has the world come to???

so… i got some asshole to let you know what i have been up to. he’s right though…