Goodbye Canada, Hello Canadians! US Tour with Alexisonfire begins.

We are 4 shows into our US tour with Alexisonfire and La Dispute and so far it's been amazing. Trash Talk was not able to get back from Europe in time to start the tour with us due to the volcanic ash situation in Iceland so hopefully they meet up with us shortly. The first day was Cleveland and we were reunited with our buddies in Alexisonfire and their "a little big bigger than a sprinter van" box truck situation. We also met the La Dispute guys for the first time and everyone hit it off well. The show was great for a 1st show of tour and afterwards we drove to Toledo, OH to stay with a friend's mother who treated us like kings!

Detroit was an amazing 700+ person show at an awesome sounding venue called St Andrew's Hall. More importantly this day marked our first ever Jimmy John's sandwich experience and let me tell you, it's worth the hype. I had the Italian Night Club and then bought a JJ Gargantuan for later it was THAT good.



Buffalo was sold out at the Old Town Hall (formerly the Sphere) with over 1000 people in attendance and the venue was cool looking with a bowl shaped hall and great sound. Some of Alexis' family and friends came out which was pretty cool. Again, more importantly, we had Buffalo WINGS! Delicious charcoal smoked wings to be exact. We all enjoyed and all paid for it later. I love good regional food, it's one of the best parts of touring.

Last night was Ottobar in the lovely Baltimore, MD. It was an early show and we played at 3:30pm but it was still a good one albeit we were a little tired from the overnight drive and van sleeping. Saw some friends and then the Alexis guys came with us to Olive Garden where half of us waited for mediocre pasta and the other half went for mediocre Applebee's. I think the Applebee's crew one that battle. Not an amazing food day unfortunately, but hey, it happens.

We play the Canal Club tonight in Richmond, VA. Let's get it on!

-Brian

The Great North Country

Long time no blog! We are halfway through our Eastern Canadian tour with our new friends Kingdoms and it's been a blast so far. We've had 2 beachside bonfires, and adventure through Hopewell Rocks and snuck into a 3D movie. Good times all around. It makes traveling and touring so much more fun when you share it with good people and we couldn't be more thankful. The reception from Canadians has been amazing and more welcoming than we could have ever imagined. We've been so lucky to stay with great people who welcome us into their homes and their lives. We are in the final week of dates in Ontario, Kingdoms homeland, and it should be awesome as well. After this we head right into our full US tour with Alexisonfire, Trash Talk and La Dispute which is going to be ridiculous. Can't wait. We'll try and be better about posting more updates and videos, we've just been having too much fun to get to it! Hooks. Dece. Hooks. - Brian

Also, check out more frequent blogs from our friend and tour manager Erin Caruso here: www.erinirerin.blogspot.com She's been taking awesome photos of the whole tour and gives a detailed account of the good, the bad and the ugly.

Therefore I Am Loves Boobies!

Hey all! Alex here, from Therefore I Am. Just wanted to pop in and let everyone know that today is the first day of our winter tour with The Wonder Years and Man Overboard. We're stoked to be out on the road with such great dudes, and such good bands. Also, I'm excited to let everyone know we'll be working with our good friends over at Keep A Breast on this tour. We had the pleasure of meeting them this past summer on The Warped Tour, and have now teamed up with them for this month long winter jaunt across the good old US of A! If you've never heard of Keep A Breast, you can check them out here: http://www.keep-a-breast.org/ They are a non-profit organization, comprised of a great group of passionate, driven people who are working towards eradicating breast cancer by exposing young people to methods of prevention, early detection and support. They host a lot of great art events, educational programs and fundraisers all across the US. And through such events, seek to increase breast cancer awareness among young people so they are better equipped to make choices and develop habits that will benefit their well-being. So please take a minute to go check them out! We're going to be blogging over at http://www.keep-a-breast.org every week, with pictures, videos and stories of the road each week- so keep checking back!
Thanks, and be well!
Alex and TIA


Watch Brian, Chris from Therefore I Am and Sierra from VersaEmerge give a demonstration on how to perform a breast exam with Keep A Breast at Warped Tour 2009.

Coco: A Lesson in Humility, Dignity & Class

It's always inspiring to see or hear about a person you admire achieving their dreams. It makes you feel like there is a little bit of justice in the universe. In this case, Conan O'Brien got his dream job as the host of The Tonight Show.

Having been a fan of Conan for years now, it was pretty cool to see him reach such heights with his clever, albeit silly and sometimes downright retarded, brand of humor and wit. He was the funniest and most consistent late night tv host in my opinion.



As you probably know Friday marked his last night hosting The Tonight Show after only 7 months on the job. NBC's decision to bump Leno back to his original time slot had forced Conan to move his show back again or leave. Conan respectfully and graciously chose to leave.




Although the last week of The Tonight Show pulled out all the stops in making light of the situation by throwing everything they had at NBC, his final show was a 1st class lesson in humility, dignity & class as he candidly and openly spoke about the truth to the terms of his parting with NBC. I know tv feels fake and Hollywood seems like the furthest thing from reality but for a brief moment Conan let his guard down completely and even choked up in telling the audience how grateful he is of everything he has and even for his brief stint at his dream job. He was vulnerable and human.

It would have been easy for Conan to take the low road, it's almost expected nowadays. Trash NBC, whore himself out to every news rag possible and cry about how unfair his situation is. The fact that he remained positive and then nailed the issue with a dose of class in his last tv appearance as host of The Tonight Show is something I believe should be highlighted. Take notes.

Although none of us will ever walk away from a job with 45 million dollars, you can still take something away from Conan and company.

"Please do not be cynical. I hate cynicism. For the record, it's my least favorite quality. It doesn't lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get, but if you work really hard, and you're kind, amazing things will happen. I'm telling you, amazing things will happen." -Conan O'Brien

Bravo Conan, bravo. I will follow you wherever you go from here.

Stay +

-Brian

By the Grace of Stranger's Kindness

Our lives on the road are kept afloat by the grace of stranger's kindness. We rely on them for shelter, food, showers and overall sanity from life in the van. It still amazes me how kind and hospitable people can be who have known us for merely a night. It makes it a little less lonely on tour when people let us into their homes and their lives. It creates an experience that is fueled by our music but has little to nothing to do with it after the show is over. It sure beats sleeping at Walmart in the van with the most human interaction coming from the cashier's staring at us as we stumble in at 5am to brush our teeth and shower in their sink.

We get to meet new company on a daily basis and each day brings a new experience. Sometimes amazing, sometimes awkward, sometimes ridiculous but always new and different. If it weren't for these stranger's and new friends, life on the road would be a lot less fun and comfortable. It feels like the last hope of the indie/underground music scene being a community. The internet has made things more and more impersonal and people are more self restricted than ever to interact with other each other at shows. It's good to know that we are part of it and appreciate the good times and generosity so many people have shown this band these past few years. We try our best to reciprocate equally and you are always welcome in our homes.

Thank you.

-Brian

SUITCASE CONTEST: WIN AN XBOX & RARE TIA STUFF

Hey everyone!

To celebrate the This is New England Tour and the upcoming holiday season, we put together an extra special contest for you all. We took an old suitcase we used on tour and filled it to the brim with all sorts of TIA goodies and rare pieces of the band's history. A 7" test press, old tour passes, retired/broken gear, rare concert posters and much more. To make the deal even sweeter we're going to take you and a friend out for pizza and a show of ours in 2010 and we'll also throw in an Xbox 360. Pretty sweet eh?

To enter the contest all we ask of you is to help us get more people to listen to our new album "The Sound of Human Lives" which came out this summer on Equal Vision Records. We have a link to stream the entire album for free that you can post as a status update on Facebook, Tweet the link or you can change your default Myspace photo to our banner and add our songs to your profile player. The more things you do to help us, the more times you are entered to win. It's pretty simple to do and doesn't take much time at all. Make sure you fill out the entry form here to be entered: http://www.thereforeiamrock.com/contest

Come see us on tour right now with Vanna & A Loss For Words on the 1st annual This is New England Tour!

We appreciate your help and support and good luck!

Much love,

Alex, Brian, Travis, Chris, Jim
THEREFORE I AM

If we played stoner metal we'd be called High on Food

First day off on the This is New England Tour and after a fun night partying with people we met at the show and waking up to little toddlers running around...we decided to head to Cracker Barrel. Between Vanna and us we had a table of 12 and the old people who are probably there daily were not happy about it. We're not that crazy looking or anything but we still get looks like we are aliens when we go into places like that which makes me wonder what it's like to be in really ridiculous looking bands like ICP or Marilyn Manson. I can only dream how much fun that is. Our servers were delightful and the biscuits and gravy were flowing like water. Cracker Barrel, TIA gives you two thumbs up! I am now high on food and starting to get blurry vision but I feel like 10 bucks. On our way to Michigan to hang at Evan from Vanna's mom's "roll n tumble" exercise studio...this will be a great one.

All good thing,
-Brian

THIS IS SPARTA...er...NEW ENGLAND TOUR!!! Kicks off with a bang.

Last night kicked off the This is New England Tour with a sold out show at the Webster Underground in Hartford, CT. Felt amazing to be playing with our good friends Vanna and A Loss for Words again and it started off with a bang. The room was small and packed and sweaty. Everyone was pumped for all the bands and everyone fed off eachother's energy making for a memorable show. These next couple weeks are going to be one for the history books I can already tell. Thanks to everyone that came out last night and we hope to see you all at Lupo's on Dec 19th as well. If you haven't bought tickets yet check out http://www.myspace.com/thisisnewenglandtour for more info. See you out there.

Tri-Force.

-Brian

Who inspires you?

Sunday night my ears were rejuvenated with the music of Cave In. One of my favorite bands of all-time and it's surprising to think I've been listening to them for over eleven years now! It's sad to admit that it's rare that I get excited as a school boy these days over going to see another band. My tastes are more discernible, I've outgrown so bands I use to like and frankly I'm just not as easily impressed as I use to be growing up going to shows every weekend. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that less and less of my friends go to shows when every show use to be such a gathering; an event. Now if I want to go to see a band, the friends I have that are willing to go are few and far between for various reasons but mostly money, time, disinterest. Bummer. But sometimes you gotta suck it up, accept that things are different and just go to the show!

Luckily I wasn't alone in my excitement. My long time friend since 8th grade, Erin, was just as excited to go this show as me. Cave In isn't broken up but they play very infrequently and put out releases even more infrequently and have so for the past 5 years. Recently they released a new ep "Planets of Old"and had a "reunion" show of sorts at Great Scott in Allston, MA and the video footage proved they were still on top of their game and my hopes were lifted knowing that a show may be in my near future.




The show was fucking awesome. The sound was amazing and louder than god. The setlist was filled with old favorites and spanned their career leading up to their most recent ep.They even played some brand new songs which leads me to believe they are cooking up a full length.Seeing the original lineup once again made for a great show. You could even tell by the way they all performed that they were psyched to be together and playing these songs. They played a nice long set and ended with 2 songs off of my favorite record of theirs "Until Your Heart Stops". This band inspires me to continually push harder with my music and my passion. The show could not have been any better and it made the 4hr round-trip drive from CT totally worth it (unlike last week when I drove the same 4hrs and paid $35 to see Glassjaw have band practice publicly...)

If the universe were fair, Cave In would be as big as Mastodon right now but I'm thankful I get to enjoy them at all.


All good things.

-Brian

What the fuck is going on?

Myspace appears to be fading for us all...but what is taking it's place? Twitter? That's only 140 characters of text. Facebook? That's mostly for drunk party photos and stalking - not music. It seems like a void is being created and nothing of equivalent value is filling it's place. So what the fuck is going on?

Where are people going? They certainly aren't writing more letters and hanging out in groups and having "conversations" and they definitely aren't checking out more concerts. So where are they and what are they doing and with whom? I mean, you can only Google your own name and your ex's so many times before you get bored, so what is everyone up to on the internet? Nobody listens to the radio - nobody even watches tv anymore. WHERE THE FUCK IS EVERYONE?

I'm not the first to say or think this but it feels like a big shift is happening. Not like a 2012 shift but just a change in the way our generation uses the internet and phones and communication toys.

Remember when we all signed up for Myspace accounts? Then bands like ours signed up and that became a huge vehicle for getting our music out into the world. This band owes a lot to Myspace and it's users. Word of mouth has carried this band this far. But why am I going to coinstar every week with change I find to buy food and Myspace has made Billions of dollars off me and my band and others just like me? I mean, they offered us all a free service. We took the bait, swallowed it and it tasted good.

Well, the worm is starting to turn in my stomach now.

Now if people want to check out my band they are bombarded with movie ads and singles dating ads and other bands and videos of people getting hit in the balls (thanks bob saget) and more and more bullshit - all people making way more money than me but it's not even about money. There were still ads back when it started but you gotta admit it's become a little ridiculous and very a.d.d. Even on YouTube, another "free" service, you can't watch anything without ads popping up here or there but at least my band gets heard...right? I mean, they gave us a free service that became a trend so then everyone goes to one place for their stuff right? Even Radiohead is pissed they don't get any money from the millions of advertising revenue they bring sites like YouTube. So how much is a free service worth? How can you value exposure? I don't have an answer but this is what's going through my head right about now.

I can't blame Myspace, YouTube, Facebook or any of these sites for creating such a genius trap. I mostly blame myself for relying on these things like everyone else has for so long. Band's stopped making .com websites because myspace could do it for you for free and usually - better. But is it okay to subject your listeners to ads and bullshit that they don't want? Don't you just want to be able to focus on what you intended on doing? How many times have you stopped listening to a band's song online because you clicked something else on the page that took you away from it. I love videos of people getting hit in the balls just like every man, but can I at least get 4 minutes of your undivided attention? I don't know, can I? You can say that all these websites have helped the music community and everyone get exposure. True. But at what cost? Better yet, whose profit?

We're all fighting for everyone's attention. The internet has made music less about music and more about getting people to give a fuck long enough to be discovered so you get your chance to impress them with your beautiful songs. I don't think it's right to subject listeners of my band to ads and bullshit they never asked for. I think it sucks. They had an intention behind typing in our url or searching our name and then they are averted away. What gives? Fuck off. Leave these people alone - I want the best for them. But this is the price we all pay for using free services. Well, I personally apologize to you all for enduring so much trash just to get information or listen to a song or watch a video of us. It's not right. I can't believe you aren't pissed. Are you pissed? Maybe I'm alone in this one. Maybe people ignore all the bullshit and just go for what they want.

It's time to go old school...we're going to have...a website again. (DUN DUN DUN!!!)

www.thereforeiamrock.com

(tempted to register www.fucktheguywhoownsthereforeiam.com like FYS did)

I know, it's weird right? Who would have thought? A site dedicated to one-single-thing without interruption. Thank Al Gore for that one.

In the near future we're going to have a new website and we're going to try and make it as interesting and thorough as possible - for you. Maybe you won't go to it, maybe you don't care, I hope you do - but at least it's there if you do. An oasis from the a.d.d. internet world. People will still probably go to our myspace more and that's fine, at least we have our own little corner of the universe where we can do our thing in peace and you can enjoy it in peace as well. A little too romantic? Maybe. But fuck it, at least there we get to call all the shots. If it doesn't work out then we'll just start posting videos of us getting hit in the balls. Anything for you. And when Myspace crumbles and everyone scrambles to find a new home - we'll be waiting for you with a shotgun, canned food and enough water to live off of for years safe in our .com bunker. That is, until 2012 when the anti-christ has a ufc match with the world. Ha.

Be well.

-Brian

Let the Wild Rompus Begin!

After a fun show at Hangar 84 in Vineland, NJ we braved torrential downpours as we packed up and if you can see in this photo, the street had become a river and over a foot of water was rushing against the ramp to our trailer almost making it's way up into the trailer itself.



The following day we had off and spent in NJ with Travis' girlfriend who lives there. We all went to see the movie Where the Wild Things Are based on the Maurice Sendak children's book and directed by Spike Jonze. This book has a special place in my heart much like it does the other guys in my band. The book was given to me when I was roughly 3yrs old from a family friend I called "Nanna" that we lived with. Anyways, it was a defining moment in my childhood and pretty much the basis of my imagination and mindset going forward in my life. The movie was great. It was sad and dark but in that way it was true to life and Spike did an amazing job creating the same excitement and innocence in the movie that came out of Sendak's book. If you didn't like it or were disappointed by the movie - well, you have no heart, sorry.

Yesterday we played at Webster Hall in New York City. It was our first ever show in NYC proper. Weird right? We just never had any luck getting into the city. We've played all around it but never in it. It was a pretty cool experience albeit more stressful than usual maneuvering a van and trailer around and parking. A lot of our Warped Tour '09 friends came out which was the best part. It was a mini-reunion of sorts.

Now we are on our way to the Great White North...Canada. Poutine, strippers and bars! 3 things none of us can afford. We play Montreal tonight and Toronto the next night. Canada has been great to us so far so we're always excited to go back. Border crossing is a bit unnerving but we should be all set. The internet card won't work up there but we'll see if we can sneak some wifi and get a blog in while we're up there. Can't stop thinking about poutine...

-Brian

And so it begins...the daily TIA blog.

With the internet cluttered with all sorts of social networking sites and widgets and ways to update and deliver news popping up everyday - we decided to streamline and get more connected. All these new technologies are very useful but they fall short of providing people with the human experience and seem to keep bands and audience at a safe distance. So we started this blog to give our audience a more in depth view into our lives on the road, in the studio and at home in more than just a quick photo or 140character text and leave plenty of space for reciprocation. I know a blog is nothing new but it's more the intent that is new on our part and something we look forward to. We want to be able to carry on our conversations we have with people we meet beyond the little time we get to see them in person at a show. So this is going to be one of the handful of outlets which we will try our best to stay on top of so we we can all be a part of each others lives one way or another.

We are also working on a very extensive and informative www.thereforeiamrock.com which will become the central nervous system for all things TIA so stay tuned for that.

Speaking of streamlining, here are the best ways to reach us or to find out what we're up to in almost up to the minute fasion:

Email: band@thereforeiamrock.com
Website: http://www.thereforeiamrock.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/thereforeiam
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/thereforeiam
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thereforeiam
Blog: http://www.thesoundsofhumanlives.blogspot.com

We're also on the road right now on tour with From First to Last, Greeley Estates, The Color of Violence so check the dates below and come hang out with us:

10/24 Vineland, NJ @ Hangar 84
10/26 New York, NY @ Webster Hall
10/27 Montreal, QC @ Underworld
10/28 Toronto, ON @ Kathedral Room
10/29 Detroit, MI @ Magic Stick
10/30 Madison, WI @ The Loft
10/31 St. Paul, MN @ Station 4
11/01 Orland Park, IL @ Mojoe's
11/03 Denver, CO @ The Marquis Theatre
11/04 Salt Lake City, UT @ In The Venue
11/05 Boise, ID @ The Venue
11/06 Seattle, WA @ Studio Seven
11/07 Portland, OR @ Satyricon
11/08 CA @ TBA
11/09 CA @ TBA
11/10 Phoenix, AZ @ Phix
11/12 Austin, TX @ Emo's
11/13 Fort Worth, TX @ The Door
11/14 Houston, TX @ Meridian

Thank you for being a part of this band.

-Brian, Travis, Alex, Chris, Jim