Matthew Thiessen's Pack Of Wild Blogs

All Our Best To The West

2009-06-07T18:06:00.002-04:00

Thanks to everyone who joined us at a show or a hang on our west coast tour.

Owl City, Runner Runner, and Classic Crime were all wonderful people to have with us on the road.

We start vocals this week and I'm pretty one track minded about it. Its gonna be fun.

Twitter - @matthewthiessen/@relientk

Twitter Dum

2009-05-15T12:42:00.003-04:00

So my @matthewthiessen is being flakey to say the least. To resolve this, I've commandeered the (@relientk) Relient K twitter. Hopefully the @matthewthiessen will be back in my possession before the release of the first Earthquakes record. Haha.

South Dakota this weekend followed by a NYC trip. We have to see a few suits and (hopefully) I see a pair of jeans along the way.
Matt MacDonald from Classic Crime paid us a visit from Seattle this week to sing on a song called If You Believe Me. He's awesome. We had our first Mono Vs. Stereo meeting last night. We're all excited about a lot of stuff. Good times. Can't wait to finish this album.

We have shows with Owl City, Classic Crime, and Runner Runner fast approaching. I don't know if there are tickets left or not, but I hear that its not wise to be hesitant about purchasing them. We'll play some new tunes, and I foresee a fair amount of band interaction.

Sleeps On A Plane
Matty

ssssnakessss

Not Too Legit To Twit

2009-04-27T10:28:00.008-04:00

So I guess I'm doing it. Twitter.com/matthewthiessen

I'll still keep this blogform and update it more frequently when I'm not recording an album.

We had a great time in Oklahoma City on Saturday... I'm still battling the remnants of a virus, so I had Tim from House Of Heroes help us sing some tunes. We played a bunch of acoustic songs as well. We were stoked to see Sloop John B and Pedro The Lion's, Big Trucks show up in the set list.

Later
Matty

Walking In a Spider Webisode

2009-04-06T19:59:00.001-04:00

Week II HERE.

The Webisodelicious

2009-03-30T18:33:00.001-04:00

Our band did a webisode. Watch it by clicking on THIS.

Whoa!

2009-03-23T18:00:00.004-04:00

I haven't blogged in a good while, but for (what I've dubbed) a good reason. There are still lyrics to write for the next LP, and I haven't been able to justify typing anything that isn't a verse, chorus, or bridge.

However, we have lots of tasty nuggets of information that we've been anxious to pass along to our friends.

First off, we started recording the new record today! Right now we're working at Dark Horse Recording with our favorite producer, Mark Lee Townsend, and after we get some tracks recorded, we're going to travel back to CA to make some tunes with John Feldmann at the helm.

After we turned in The Bird And The Bee Sides, we fulfilled our first record deal (six albums) with Gotee Records. This made us free agents. Our plan? Matt Hoopes and I just signed up to begin positions as A&R for the soon to be resurrected Mono Vs. Stereo records. We'll sign a few bands a year, and also release Relient K's material through the label. We'll set up some email addresses soon with the specific purpose of receiving demos from unsigned artists. All this to say, we may eventually end up partnering up with the least evil of majors that expresses interest in giving us a helping hand. We'll just have to see. Fun stuff!!

Relientk.com is a temp site right now. Our apologies. Even though we're a bit notorious for having a terrible internet presence, we're planning an attempt to quickly rectify that reputation. Until then we'll lean on our myspace.

It's been a while since we've ventured out west (apart from Warped Tour), so we're going to do a short run of left side shows at the end of May. I've quickly become great friends with Adam Young from Owl City, and I'm really excited to announce that they'll be supporting us on all the dates. I'm also just as pleased to have Runner Runner and Classic Crime with us on selected dates.

5/26/09 Glass House (Pomona, CA - Owl City/Runner Runner)

5/27/09 The Dome (Bakersfield, CA - Owl City/Runner Runner)

5/28/09 The Boardwalk (Orangevale, CA - Owl City/Runner Runner)

5/29/09 Indigo District (Eugene, OR - Owl City/Classic Crime)

5/30/09 Wonder Ballroom (Portland, OR - Owl City/Classic Crime)

5/31/09 Neumo's (Seattle, WA - Owl City/Classic Crime)

6/2/09 Knitting Factory (Spokane, WA - Owl City/Classic Crime)

6/3/09 Knitting Factory (Boise, ID - Owl City/Classic Crime)

6/4/09 Murray Theatre (Salt Lake City, UT - Owl City/Classic Crime)

I'll do a not so businessy blog in a few.

Matty

Zweitausend Nein!

2009-01-17T14:13:00.003-05:00

We're seventeen days into the new year, and I haven't even said hello. Sorry about that.

Anyway, after the WWS tour I took a few weeks off, relaxed a bit, and enjoyed the holidays.

A few days before 09, we played a few shows (4) in Galtinburg, TN. We did a bunch of dorky stuff like minigolf, go carts, and buying almost $200 worth of elk jerky.

Since then, I've found my way to here.
I'm on a lake in the middle of nowhere,
and I'm taking some time to write some new tunes for a new LP.
So far, I'm enjoying the process immensely.

Encyclopedias are crucial to any studio set up.

On Monday, my friend Adam from Owl City will be paying me a visit. We're going to work on a few of his songs for his upcoming record. I can't wait.

2009 is gonna be a great year. We've got a ton of really cool things going on, and we'll be doing some major renovations to all of our web stuff. After that, it'll be easier to inform everyone of what we've got cookin.... And it won't just be jerky.

Matthew

I'll Blog If Yule Blog

2008-11-21T18:56:00.006-05:00

My friends!

Its been a while. Normally that means that life has been bland. Fortunately, thats a far cry from the truth.

First order of business.... We released some new music!

If you buy Let It Snow Baby, Let It Reindeer for $9.99 on iTunes, you get three new Christmas songs (Oh Holy Night, Silver Bells, and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen). These songs are also available a la carte.

If you pick up Let It Snow Baby... in a store, you'll get a card that gives you

The 3 new songs
Two limited edition RK tour posters
Relient K wrapping paper
And our friends House Of Heroes' version of Silent Night

Our new animated video for Sleigh Ride is also available on iTunes.

I know we didn't release a full length Relient K studio album this year, but we did manage to deliver about 30 unreleased songs. We hope you like what we've done in 08, and we'll have plenty more new music in 09.
_____________________________________

The rest of the Uncle Fest Tour was so much fun. The last show of the tour was in Chicago, and it proved to be our favorite! I love ending on a high note.

My personal highlight of the tour was Halloween night in Cleveland. House Of Heroes all dressed up like me.
Cute.

Then the craziest thing happened.
Brady Quinn (the starting QB for the Browns)
and Nick Sorenson (the cornerback that saved the week 8 game vs. Jacksonville)

both showed up to catch the set at the Cleveland House Of Blues. They were in the same box as my brother, Jeremy, and he called me up after the show to meet them. Turns out that they dig the stuff, and they came to watch the show before going to Joshua Cribbs' (another Browns player) Halloween party. I told them that I dig their stuff, and I did a stellar job of not geeking out on em.

This Providence, Ludo, House Of Heroes, and their crew were some of the most amazing people that we've ever had on tour. We're sure gonna miss hanging out with those guys.

We had a few days off after the tour, and then we started up the Winter Wonder Slam tour with B. Reith, Family Force 5, and Toby Mac. We're about six shows in, and our Christmas spirits are high. If you happen to live by any of the twelve remaining dates of the tour, I recommend you make it out to see the show. Its a fun time.

Later.
Thiessen

*

2008-10-14T20:13:00.003-04:00

The last few weeks of tour have been wonderful (as expected). We've been through a lot of our favorite towns and met a ton of great people.

We got to see Death Cab For Cutie on a day off in Columbus, and the show was EXCELLENT. They're always good, but the set list was the best its ever been. Ethan had a fun little birthday when we were in the Boston area, and I got to go to the best Cleveland Browns game that I've seen in a LONG time.... if not ever.

I'm pretty sure I didn't get on TV with my sign (which was a little wordy), but I'm ecstatic that the text proved to be applicable. Nobody gave my Brownies a chance against the champion New York Football Giants, but they played an excellent game, and turned my first Monday Night Football experience into one pretty magnificent night. My buddy 2tone (who is the biggest Giants fan I know) drove up from Nashville, we went to Kinkos to print up some signs, and we went to the stadium to sit four rows away from the Brown's bench and the 30 yard line. My brother Jeremy scored us the sweet seats. The Browns followed up by scoring those 35 sweet, sweet points. Great night.

The mercury is beginning to slide down the thermometer, and its feeling more like autumn everyday. We're hitting NYC tomorrow, and then we'll make our way down the east coast towards warmer temperatures. Looking forward to it.

Now You Know What I Did This Rocket Summer

2008-10-04T18:59:00.005-04:00

I don't know if you guys have seen the Rocket Summer video for Do You Feel, but for some reason, Bryce let me be in it. Check it out here. A bunch of my buddies are in the video too... looking less nerdy than me. The video is pretty cool though.... Makes me smile and think.

Last night's West Des Moines show was a great time, and we're excited to continue that trend in MN tonight.

Much love.

Madison, Wii

2008-10-03T02:28:00.005-04:00

Whee.

The Uncle Fest Tour kicked off today. It was my first opportunity to watch This Providence, and it proved to be time well spent. They put on quite the live show, and they're a pleasure to hang with back stage. House Of Heroes and Ludo tore it up as always, and it was a very satisfying thing to confirm that we're on a tour with a bunch of amazing bands.

Our set had the anticipated "first show of tour" bugs, spiders, etc... But naturally, it was a rootin tootin good time. Three of our friends in the audience arrived in matching Pugsley stripes, and I kind of didn't get it at first. I thought they were horizontal referees.

We played a few songs for the first time, including Death Bed. Other than few flubs (some more key than others), we made our way through the 11 minute storyboard. Its definitely a fun one.

Ethan took a picture and taught it how to say one one hundredth of a thousand words.

Matty

(and yes... 7PM is, in fact, a word)

Here comes Octourber

2008-09-29T01:40:00.004-04:00

We finished recording the new Christmas jams, and tomorrow we start rehearsing for The Uncle Fest Tour while they get mixed. Its all happening, Penny Lane.

Had a really fun show in Valpo, Indiana yesterday.

The Browns and OSU landed in the W column this weekend. Go sports team go.

35 MPH

2008-09-18T01:36:00.004-04:00

The rest of Warped Tour was just as awesome of the first half.
Afterwords, I received a PS3 for my birthday, moved to Liberty City, and slowed things down to look at the scenery.
I did do quite a bit more than play video games, but crossword puzzles, frisbee, and roller coasters were almost as equally productive.
So, if this blog did, in fact, die for a few weeks.....?
I'm in the mood for zombies anyway.

Love Halloween. But The Uncle Fest Tour is not going to be a Halloween themed tour. At least not 100%. All I'm saying is that I'm not going to eat candy and I'm not going to bob for any apples. Bottom line.
Anyway, it shall be a Fest nonetheless, and I know I keep saying it, but we're really looking forward to hitting up the following
towns alongside Ludo, This Providence, and House Of Heroes.

Fantasy Football is back... I'm 1-1. It was a rough weekend for me in the sport arena. My fantasy team, OSU, and The Browns have all validated my pre-season doubts and fears. Nonetheless, my allegiance shall remain strong.

This Saturday is my Tusky Valley High School 10 year reunion for the class of '98. I was the (probably the only one who ran for) class president, but our treasurer and the other officers did most of the planning. However, I did set up the corn hole tournament and the karaoke that will be there. Should be fun.

We're getting ready to track a couple more Christmas songs to add to this year's release of Deck The Halls, Bruise Your Hand. Its nice to let the Christmas catalogue snowball a bit each year.
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Oh Holy Night, & Silver Bells are this season's selections, and along with this, we have (what is shaping up to be) an amazing animated video for "Sleigh Ride" in the works.
Go stuff that in your stocking.
More news on on that jingle jangle later.

________________________
A Blog, Blog Time Ago

July 27- August 17
Warped Tour continued to buck and weave us through the midwest.

Scranton's show was a blast despite the 45 minute thunder/hail storm delay. So, for the benefit of the soggy Scrantonites, our homage to NBC's The Office was delivered with an extra scoop of pizzaz . I'm not sure if they could tell.

Jersey, Pittsburgh, Cinci, Indy, and Milwaukee were all wonderful in every way. Indy is an old stomping ground of mine, so its always good to get back to the uh... 317?

Chicago was my favorite Warped Tour date of 2005, and this year, it proved to be the best again. The show was great and the crowd was fantastic. After our set, the day got a bit interesting.
A couple of the guys from Say Anything told me that Max lost his voice and wouldn't be able to sing. They had recruited a few other singers from the tour to step in karaoke style, and they asked if I could do a tune.
I chose Futile cause its one of my faves from Is A Real Boy.
I was nervous as heck before they went on, and all the Say Anything guys, Fred (The Color Fred), Stephen (Anberlin), Cory (Norma Jean), James (The Bled), Justin (Motion City Soundtrack), Keith (Everytime I Die), and I formed a circle, put our hands in the middle, and sang that Rembrants song I'll Be There For You. I really did believe they would all be there for me.
I was the third one to sing, so I had moment to cram as many lyrics into my brain as I could. I only forgot a few words, and I had a really good time singing with the band. I had never done anything like it before. Livin' The Dream.

The next week took us from Minnesota through Canada and around the Pacific Northwest. Highlights included riddles, dumbos, my friend Zach getting a unicycle in Boise, and watching The Aggrolites while the sun set behind the gorge in George, WA.

We had a day off in Ashland, OR on my birthday, and all the fellas in the band threw me a great party. About 1000 balloons were harmed that day. It was the best bday I'd ever had on the road.

The last week of Warped went by in a blur. We enjoyed the California sunshine and the promise of clean laundry in the near future.

And that's it. Warped Tour was a great tour for us, and I'm so glad we got to be a part of it.
I'll try and post again in less than six weeks.

Matthew Thiessen

The Least And Most Of The Eastern Coast (And The Midwest Too)

2008-07-27T01:59:00.005-04:00

Hey friends. Nothing much going on in my world except for the last two weeks of Warped Tour.

Florida was a hot and sweaty ordeal, but a lot of fun shows. The Miami crowd was a great highlight.

The North Carolina, VA Beach, and the DC area MD sets were all wonderful in their own right.

It felt marvelous to stroll around in my Browns T shirt in Cleveland, and Detroit was another highlight crowd (especially considering an earlier time slot).

Canada was interesting. Toronto had us singing High Of 75 in a hearty downpour, and Montreal made me wish I could transpose our lyrics into French. Both shows were a great time, but certainly not the easiest of the tour.

At this point we had played 12 shows in a row, so we all slept a little better the night we drove into Boston for two days off.
I continued supporting my new frisbee addiction, and I watched Hellboy, Hellboy II, and the new Batman installment (which I adored).

Despite impressive thunderstorms and tornado warnings, the show went on in Boston. The result was one that led to smiles on all of our faces. The New England ladies and lads did not disappoint. That morning, Zach from All Time Low and I went for a jog. In an act of spontaneity I steered our run onto a path that led through the woods. Zach got a bit off the path, and moments later said, "Dude, I think we should run faster, there's a swarm of bees following you." I looked back and confirmed the colony in flight. After getting stung twice, he soon realized that he had followers of his own, and we high-tailed it out of the woods into a trailer park. Even though we were out of the bees' natural environment, the bloodthirsty demons decided to pursue us without relent. We soon passed some kids walking towards Warped Tour and passed off our bee problem like a baton in a relay.
Start running kids.

Buffalo and Philadelphia area Jersey were another set of fine and dandy days.

This morning we played Long Island and enjoyed beautiful weather for the rest of the Saturday afternoon and evening. I love NY.

Matthew T.

We Heart You Too (and your oversized Rice Krispy treat)

2008-07-11T20:32:00.004-04:00

The tour has been humming along nicely.

We spent the fourth of July in Austin, TX, 'Merica. It was wonderful. There were fireworks and scared bats everywhere.

We had a splendid day in San Antonio, and a nice morning-time sing along in Houston (we opened the stage that day).

After Texas we took a few days off and reconvened in Atlanta. I finally bought toothpaste for the first time since losing my personal supply on the second day of tour. Its nice to be back with my own brand.

Yesterday we began our descent into Florida with a show in Mickey's hood. I was loving me some Orlando until I blew out my voice in song. I didn't realize how bad it was until I woke up today and gathered that St. Pete was most likely going to hear me sound like St. Pete Brady for thirty minutes. Nonetheless, the show was another dose of fun in the sun.

As for tonight, I'm about to go cook up some throat coat, and stay out of the present rainstorm.
Later.
Matt "about to drink some" Tea, Son

Apple B Sides Served Medium Rarities

2008-07-02T18:12:00.004-04:00

We released The Bird And The Bee Sides yesterday! We're so happy to have it out and available. A toothy smile and thanks to everyone who picked it up or who is planning on doing so.

The first twelve days of Warped Tour have been nothing short of fantastic. Every show has been so much fun, and I've made a ton of new friends so far (behind and in front of the scenes).

There's a ton of great bands on the tour that I've had a chance to meet and see on the tour. There's more than 80 bands on the tour, and I think there might be 50+ that I've never listened to before in my life. I've been chiseling away at my personal "go see" list, and I've realized that this Warped Tour is an even better value than I originally thought.

Some highlights include

Say Anything (my favorite show on the tour... it may have something to do with the fact that they've let me sing gang vocals on "Belt" a few times)

The Higher (they play a great new song, and Seth's vocal is pretty smooth on their cover of "Bye, Bye, Bye")

The Academy Is (rumor has it.... your foot will be tapping)

Reel Big Fish and Oreskaband (you can't beat a talented ska band on Warped)

Anberlin (I've seen them play a thousand times, but I still love watching my buddies tear it up)

Street Dogs (classic Warped punk rock)

The Maine (the day I saw them, they drove all night and played first on zero sleep... they still managed to pull off a superb set)

August Burns Red (I couldn't tear my eyes away from the drummer, Matt. At one point he pulled off a fill so crazy that I started laughing and yelled out "SICK!!!". I looked around, and everyone else watching was doing the same thing)

Beat Union (punk/ska/reggae from Birmingham, England. I could tell that they're really loving Warped Tour. So much fun to watch)

The Aggrolites (they play dirty reggae, and they're by far the tightest band on the tour. One of the best moments of the tour was when I watched the Aggrolites play the Warped BBQ in Las Cruces, NM)

We've also been working with a wonderful organization called Blood:Water Mission. They're providing wells and latrines for people in Africa whose lives depend on those things. A huge thanks to Paul Reed Smith (PRS) guitars for providing us with a guitar to raffle off for BWM at the end of Warped Tour.

In conclusion, I guess I'm just recommending that everyone come out and enjoy a day at Warped, and pick up our new EP/B sides record.

I'm having a lovely summer, and I hope the same applies to you.

Matty T.

This Means War

2008-06-21T02:12:00.002-04:00

ped Tour Has Begun

Photo by Jered Scott

Considering that today was the first day of Warped Tour, it was a great day. Not perfect, not entirely smooth or comfortable (108 degrees during our set), but still great.

I think we're going to post a new song on our myspace tomorrow. Its called The Lining Is Silver.
Its another one off of The Bird And The Bee Sides (26 songs - comes out July 1 - ten bucks or less at most retailers).

Can't wait for San Fran tomorrow. Its supposed to be sunny with a high of seventy six.
Ha.

Matty

Bird & Bee; Flight In Formation

2008-05-27T19:04:00.013-04:00

More Details
If you've followed our band a bit over the last few years, you'd have noticed that we enjoy releasing recorded music apart from our "official" records. Lots of bands do it. Its always fun for us.
In the early spring of 2000, we printed an EP called 2000 A.D.D., months before our self-titled album came out. It was the first thing we'd ever done with a record label logo on it. I guess it seemed pretty special to us.

Ready, set, go.
We've been having a good time making Christmas records, EPs, and Acoustic releases ever since.

Meet the new EP.

Gotee signed us up for six. And for number six, we decided to release an EP, B sides, and rarities album called The Bird And The Bee Sides. The following is the track-list for the 26 songs that are going to be on the physical copy. Its everything that we could squeeze on to one disc, I promise. (the suits talked us out of doing a dual disc release) An additional, digital album will also be included with The Bird And The Bee Sides. We don't know how many songs are going to be on that yet. Again, we'll keep you posted.

The first thirteen make up The Nashville Tennis EP.

These songs are new tunes. Track six is a new version of the previously recorded song, The Thief.

The last thirteen songs have never been sold in a record store. Some have been on various EPs we've done, some are acoustic covers of album tracks, and some are demos. All of them have been remastered, and a lot of them have been remixed.
The Bird And The Bee Sides.

Its going to be a cardboard digipak, the price of a normal cd, and available in stores July 1.
Please pass this message on to anyone you know who might care. Please.

Head here to check out a new song called The Scene And Herd.

Stay tuned!
Matty.

A While Indeed

2008-05-12T00:14:00.002-04:00

Not too much to report. Did a bit of gardening and music stuff this weekend.

All (most?) of the new tunes will be mixed as of tomorrow night. That makes me smile. Gotta love Christmas Eve syndrome.

Getting close on an album cover too.

More smiles.

Love ya, Mom (she definitely doesn't read this... haha)

Matty

The Hiram Terriers

2008-04-28T00:00:00.002-04:00

We had a really lovely time playing in Hiram, OH last night. After rehearsing it for the first time Friday, we decided to play a new song called The Scene And Herd. I'll be tracking the vocals this week, and I'm excited to see how it turns out.

Secondhand Serenade joined in as well, and it was a joy to meet and hang out with those dudes.

We did a fun woodsy photo shoot during the day (hopefully some of the shots will make it into the Bird And The Bee Sides packaging).

Also, I got to congratulate the Hiram Women's softball team for advancing to their tournament, and I got to wish my friend Nina a 24 hour belated happy birthday.

And this is my nephew, Hudson.

In a hat.

Matty

Dear Everyone That Pays Attention To Our Band,

2008-04-22T17:33:00.003-04:00

Hello. Hope everyone is doing well.

We're doing well. Amongst other things.

One of which is recording.
We are not recording the next full length Relient K record, however we have tracked thirteen new original songs that will be going on an EP. We're calling it The Nashville Tennis EP. We know its a lot of songs for an EP. Whatever.

As well as the EP, we're going to put out a B sides record. I'm not totally sure of how many tracks we're going to put on there, but we're aiming for 20+ for sure. As of right now, we're calling this The Bird And The Bee Sides.

The two albums together are going form a new release also called The Bird And The Bee Sides. We're hoping to release it on the earlier side of the summer.

In addition to this, we've got a bunch of other tricks up our sleeves. We just gotta run it all past the suits first. God bless 'em.

Hopefully this gives all of you a little idea of what we're up to. I wish we had a little more confirmation on the details, but we'll clue you in when that happens.

Relient K

Details

The Nashville Tennis EP

I'm really excited to release this EP. We're recording it with Mark Lee Townsend (MMHMM/Deathbed) and JR McNeely (Underoath/Anberlin) is going to do the mixes.

We're calling it The Nashville Tennis EP because there's a bit of a alt country flare to some of the tunes, and because a lot of the songs have ties to the city of Nashville, TN.

One of the cool things about the EP is that its going to have the feel of two separate EPs. Seven of the songs are rock and roll tunes complete with some fun curveballs. The other six lean more towards our acoustic side. I can't wait to finish it.
Matt Hoopes, Jon Schneck, John Warne, and Ethan Luck have all written songs and are singing lead on them. I'm really happy with the results. You will be too.

The Bird And The Bee Sides

This album is pretty predictable. We're compiling a lot of remixed/remastered songs that did not appear on our five full length releases. Anything from the acoustic version of Up And Up to the demo of Sadie Hawkins Dance (my voice cracks really bad on it... pretty funny/stupid). It will contain a bunch of songs from The Vinyl Countdown, The Employee Of The Month EP, The Creepy EP, and a ton of other stuff that you can't even find on the internet. At least not yet.

We'll post track listings and all the other good stuff when they're done. Just thought it'd be nice to give everyone a heads up.

Sing It.

Matt's Favorite Hat. (Top Hat)

I Am A Human Water Bottle

Slip Slidin' Away

PSP-oed

Much love,
Matty T.

Studio

2008-04-08T16:15:00.002-04:00

So, we're in our favorite Nashville studio, S-S-Studio, recording some new jams.

Why?

We'll fill ya in soon.

Much love, Matty

Morocc Obama

2008-04-03T04:17:00.007-04:00

April Fools. Canadians can't vote.

My friend Andy (who is in Morocco) sent me a little interview. Thought I'd share. I do reply to good myspace messages once in a while. :-)

(Obama) Tracy Morgan's recent Saturday Night Live commentary was pretty silly.
No link. Find it if you like SNL.

Sorry about the smiley faces and capitalization issues.

Cough cough...

ANDY!!!! Ha.

1. who's your best friend of all time?
Hoopes.

2. any chance i could replace him?
Nope. Sorry.

3. how about is there any chance of me taking matt hoopes's place as guitarist for relient k?
Sorry.

4. how do you pronounce "pwned"?
Yuck.

5. what do you think there's more of...stars in the sky or grains of sand on the earth?
Cool question.

6. what is your favorite flavor of skittles?
Strawberry, but I try to steer clear.

7. if you were trapped on an island and could only bring one book, what would it be (apart from a hollowed out farmer's almanac filled with the bare essentials for survival of course)
Without stating the (I hope) obvious :-). The Shack. Oh yes, oh yes, The Shack. (When I finish I may deliver a blog book report)

8. in a fight between a grilled cheese sand
wich and a taco, who would win?
Depends on what mood I'm in.

9. did you ever find bugs bunny attractive when he put on a skirt and acted like a female bunny? (i didn't either just for the record...just a harmless wayne's world quote)
I didn't remember that line. Good flick.

10. how do you prefer your hamburgers done?
Medium Rare Plus. :-) But for my birthday, I'll have a Filet at Morton's with Shannon, James, Steven, and Kevan, please. I love steak.

11. how would you like to come to morocco for a little jam session sometime?
Hmmm.

12. which bear is best?
Friendly.

13. what is your name?
Matthew.

14. what is your quest?
Love and Grace.

15. what is your favorite color?
Blue.

16. what is the air speed velocity of an unladen swallow?
Not fast if swallowed by a mighty Monty Python.

17. what is your favorite type of pop tart?
Nope. Special K breakfast bars.

18. what is the average time it takes you to write a song?
15 minutes for the part that counts, but that 15 minutes can take a week.

19. what is the average time it takes for the band to either go with it or say "back to the drawing board"?
We always finish what we start. Everyone plays their part in making sure the song is something we all enjoy.

20. who is your favorite super hero?
Great question. John The Baptist.

21. what is the best movie you've ever seen?
Harold And Maude.

22. more importantly, what movie was the biggest waste of 2 hours of your life?
The Stepford Wives or some crap?

23. when you reach the age of retirement down the line and are looking for someone to carry on the relient k legacy, what would your criteria be?
Weird. I guess we'll talk then. I hope that its not for a good while though... A good long while.

24. have you ever gotten sick of playing sadie hawkins dance at every one of your shows?
Yes and no. It just has a campfire sing along feel. There's not much art to it. Who doesn't like a little Kum Ba Yah?

25. did marilyn manson really eat your girlfriend?
This girl I liked bought into some of the lyrics. She didn't understand the theatrics of Manson's work. She was consumed by the words in a literal way. Its just good music, honey bee. Ha.

28. what does a half-dead flower have to do with MMHMM?
We were pruning and flowering at the time. We grew some new guys, new labels, new management, and new audiences. We also replaced a bass player and old management. It felt pretty symbolic.

29. last but oh most certainly not least...will you remember me on july 18 at the warped tour in detroit and let me hang out with you for a while?
I would hope so. My girlfriend has a lot of family in Detroit, and I'm often going out to dinner or something with them to escape the occasional monotony of the hot, dirty, summercamp-awesomeness that encompasses everything I love and like about Warped Tour. I'll be hanging out.
Much love,
Matty T.

Trip McNeely

2008-03-28T10:43:00.002-04:00

I'm off to do some extra-curricular traveling. 2 hours ago, I definitely had a dream that Matt Hoopes and I were on a plane plummeting from the sky. We never crashed. Sweet.

See ya soon.

Matty.

Jesus.

2008-03-22T22:16:00.003-04:00

I love this time of year, because I watch stuff on TV that remind me of how human Jesus was. He was a real guy that whether you believe in the spiritual side of him or not (I do), was probably really cool to hang out and talk to. At least from what I've read.

Listening to XTC - Poor Skeletons Step Out

Happy Easter Everyone.

Matthew.

Cause We Make A Good Team?

2008-03-19T01:22:00.003-04:00

Shannon got me a present.
Auction. Charity.
I'm stoked.

Signed (with certificate) and apparently previously worn. I suppose all of this certifies me a Lebron James nerd. Glad to be one.

Big pictures for a big jersey.

What a pick up line that turned out to be.
Thanks boog.

Matty

Irish I Was Irish

2008-03-17T19:00:00.002-04:00

The shows were some of my favorites we've ever done! Ethan was marvelous, and our new crew guys (Derek, Travis, James, and Tyler) helped make everything run nice and hitchlessly.

Even though we always wanted to, we had not yet played a show with New Found Glory. The show Friday was pretty special for that and more.

I had a really great time meeting everyone in my path this week. Thanks for taking the time to come to a show and say hi. The Wedding and Rookie Of The Year were tops, and pre-existing friendships were made stronger still.

There's so much more to tell of, but my internet time has expired for this evening. I've got bags to pack.

O'Matty

Sticking Out Like A Sore Thumbs Up

2008-03-10T04:54:00.002-04:00

I had a really wonderful night tonight. It was definitely not our best display, but I don't remember having this much fun in a long time. I mean, it HAS been almost 3 months since we've played a show. Ethan did well, and all of us were glad to be on stage together again.

Welcome To The Good Life.

The Beat Of A Different Drum

2008-03-06T03:33:00.003-05:00

Er....

Not much to report other than we're busy in Nashville preparing for some upcoming shows.

Ethan is doing a great job with the tunes, and we're definitely throwing him some curveballs. Since we're only doing a few shows next week, we're sailing into some unchartered waters with the set. We hope no one will mind. We also hope that we don't run into pirates.

I've been listening to the song Beautiful Beat by Nada Surf all week. Its good. The rest of the songs on the record take their turns hitting or missing.

Time to rest.
Matthew

Cupidity

2008-02-16T15:20:00.002-05:00

Valentine's Day was great. I scored some amazing Thai food (take-out... no reservations needed), and my best girl and I watched Ocean's Thirteen. Since she doesn't watch Lost, I made a personal sacrifice in the name of love. Merry Valentine, everyone.

I've been enjoying the company of my friends in Rookie Of The Year, lately. Melodies are palpable.

We picked a new drummer.

Its gonna be a fun year.

Matty

Ill Eagle

2008-02-12T11:26:00.000-05:00

I was outside this morning, and I saw an eagle soaring above me. He was looking for breakfast or lunch... whatever meal eagles eat at 10:45am. Anyway, he kept circling directly overhead, so I squinted my eyes and pretended I was holding a kite string that led all the way up to him. I got to fly that eagle for about six minutes, and as he flew farther and farther away, I thought, "Wow. That is a lot of kite string."

There will probably be more news today.
Matty

Bad Luck Chuck

2008-02-01T02:43:00.000-05:00

A street light flickered on as I was walking beneath it tonight. It could have been motion sensitive, but I like to think that it was something special. Not good luck or anything... just a happy coincidence.

A friend of mine was talking about coincidences that hold the reputation of being ill faring (like strolling under a ladder or encountering a black cat). I love that stuff. I broke the mirror in my travel-kit. I laughed out loud.

There is no bad luck... just trials traveling in packs. When it rains it pours, but after it pours it stops.
Matty

Oilman

2008-01-29T18:42:00.001-05:00

Not too much going on with me. Kind of.
However, I did see an amazing movie yesterday
There Will Be Blood is probably one the best films that I've recently experienced.

Its about an oilman.

So is this.

"How are ya, dude? I'm Oil Man"
"Eh... I'm ok. Lost my pants a few miles back.."

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY PARENT'S LIVING ROOM!!!!!????!!!!
"Its me, Ricky. Your stepfather! You need to take the trash out, dude."

rough translations
Matty.

Kids Stuff.

2008-01-15T23:04:00.000-05:00

I went to the premier of the Veggie Tales' newest cinematic endeavor, The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. The folks at Big Idea were very gracious to us by giving our song a spin during the end credits. The movie was well done, and the forty toddlers in the theater ate it up. I also got to meet the guy who does all of their song writing. I admire him quite a bit.

Ok.
This is a Steve Irwin playset I bought. Not sure why they sell 'em.

I started drawing another hot dog picture the other day. I drew a burglar hot dog guy on a T-shirt one time, and thought I'd put him in another picture. This is just a screen shot of it.

I Am The Champion, My Friends

2008-01-06T18:44:00.000-05:00

I don't know why I'm disclosing this information weeks after my victory, but I won my fantasy football league. Much thanks to LT, Randy, Braylon, Reggie, and others.

What Happened When A Couple Thousand People Were Really Hungry?

2008-01-01T13:04:00.002-05:00

2008.
Happy New Year, friends.

There wasn't a whole lot of fantastic music released last year, but here's twelve albums that I listened to more than once. One of them was released in '06, but I just don't care. Haha.

The Little Ones - Sing Song
Silverchair - Young Modern
Manchester Orchestra - Like A Virgin Losing A Child
The Starting Line - Direction
Ruth - Secondhand Dreaming
Rufus Wainwright - Release The Stars
Surrogate - Love Is For The Rich
Sea Wolf - Leaves In The River
The Bird And The Bee - The Bird And The Bee
The Thrills - Teenager
Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Nick Drake - Family Tree

Dave Douglasless

2007-12-30T22:50:00.000-05:00

We just figured out that yesterday was the 7th year anniversary (to the day) of Dave's first show with us. Yesterday was also Dave's last show. We had a really good time playing together one last time. I think all of us were pretty emotional, but we were able to stay fairly composed. We were in the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee for the last few days, and with band, crew, management, and wives, there was 18 of us playing Guitar Hero (which I hate), pool, Blongo, and hanging out in a gorgeous mountainside cabin together. It was a really great way to say goodbye to a really great friend.

Today is actually the ten year anniversary of Relient K's first show ever. I never thought we'd last a decade, but I couldn't be happier. Here's to another ten.
Matty

Football In The Neighborhood Of Make-Believe

2007-12-19T12:22:00.000-05:00

Well... It'd be a little weird if I didn't talk about the fact that I am one of two out of twelve people still fighting for the main prize in my fantasy football league. I go up against Mark Stuart this week. If I win, I WIN. If not, I still did better than ten other guys, and they'll still be mad at me. Thats a good thing. This was my first year doing fantasy, and I was pretty apprehensive. There's a lot of luck to it, but I did spend about $35 on fantasy football magazines before the season began. I hope I see a bit of a return on that investment.

The Browns are doing pretty nicely in hard-hitting, reality football. I thought this was going to be a rough year for us Browns fans.

Shows what I know. Fantasy or not, I reside in

Let's Make-Believeland a reality. Go Browns

Fievel Goes Blog

2007-12-17T15:49:00.000-05:00

The last two weeks have been super busy, but pretty great. Being preoccupied before Christmas is an amazing thing. The holiday sneaks up on me, and I'm always grateful when its here. I watched American Tail last night. Hence the Fievel themed comic blog.

Click here if you can't see the whole thing

Matty T.

The Browns, Giving Thanks, The Sounds, & Funny Pranks

2007-12-01T02:08:00.000-05:00

The reason for the drought is pretty simple.

I didn't really blog.

The Browns [Part I]
Some friends, April and Kelly, bought me a Browns jersey. They gave it to me a while back, and I've been wearing it every Sunday afternoon since. They put Clay Matthews' retired number 57 on it. They weren't aware of the legendary linebacker's accolades as a part of the Cleveland Browns franchise. They were just making a Five Sore... reference. They also put my last name on the back. Clay Matthews Thiessen. Very close. If I had a clone or a brother named Matthew, it'd be perfect. Love it. Thanks ladies.

The Browns played the at the Baltimore Ravens on November 18th. The Bands played at the Baltimore City on November 18th. For a while I had known I was going to be spending this brisk November Sunday merely blocks down the street from where Derek, Braylon, The Amazing Joe Thomas, Jamal, Mr. Jurevicius, and K. Winslow were clocking in. I had planned on watching them work in person, but I had fallen ill about five days prior. I wasn't quite up to sitting in cold weather and wearing some fan's spilled Bud Light. If you follow the NFL, you may remember that the Browns won the game with a crazy, last-second, tying field goal in regulation, and a victorious three point boot in overtime. Despite being on sleepytime meds and my 23rd cup of tea, there was much "jouissance" in reaction to this freakish act of ricochet.
I felt better.

I felt like I had enough voice to have a good show.

The Browns cured me. Football is awesome.

With this new found exuberance for life, I thought it fitting that I'd celebrate. I'll admit that I was a bit nervous waiting to walk up the steps to the stage where I would play my final song of the night, cloaked in my new Browns jersey. I boarded and struck my pre-meditated Heisman pose. The boos rained down like a bittersweet symphony. I walked to the microphone, confessed that I was celebrating a victory that was really big for the Browns, and then removed my jersey (under which I was wearing the traditional snap down collared shirt). While I did this, I said something to the extent of how I had had my fun, and I wasn't going to distract from the music with football tomfoolery any more. Then I spotted someone in the front row with a Todd Heap Raven's jersey. It appeared that as an act of good nature, I should wear the Raven's jersey while I sing the song. The thought was something shy of blasphemy. I kind of regret going through with the idea, but I did have thousands of people looking at me with laser eyes. I got chicken.

The next day began my Thanksgiving Week.

Giving Thanks
I was thankful to be off the road for a few days. I love touring (this tour especially), but its always nice to not live in close quarters with eleven other dudes for a few days.

The first thing on the menu was a little trim. I walked in the door, looked in the mirror, walked upstairs, and shaved my lip.

I got to say the prayer before we ate on Thanksgiving. I've never done that before. It made me smile... and kinda nervous.

I had a really busy time around the holiday. I spent most of it with my girlfriend, Shannon, and we visited three towns (full of friends and family) in three days. We spent more hours awake then we wanted to, and we did a fair bit of driving. It was all worth it, however, cause we got to see some wonderful people and have a blast hanging out with each other.

The Browns [Part II]
I came home to Ohio, and within two and a half hours there was a knock on my door. My buddy Joe was the first of some friends to arrive. We picked up some Crossroads Pizza (by far the most amazing thing to come out of Bolivar, OH), and he casually asked me if I'd like to go to the Browns game on Sunday. Thoughts of sitting in cold weather wearing some fan's spilled Bud Light were followed by an enthusiastic "yes". We made plans to head up to Cleveland Sunday morning. I was elated because I had not yet seen the Browns play (cause I missed out the week before), and I had never been to the Brown's stadium. All of this was unbeknownst to Joe, but I'm glad he asked me to go.

On Sunday morning I threw on six or seven layers of clothing (the topmost layer was browns and orange). Despite some congestion at the gate and a decent line for the bratwursts, we got to our seats with about eight minutes left in the first quarter. The game was awesome. The Brownies won, and I got to chat with the guy next to me about the offensive coordinator. I'm a nerd.

Casey
The worst part of the week was definitely finding out about Casey Calvert's passing. Casey was the guitarist for Hawthorne Heights, and we shared a ton of great times together on the Nintendo Fusion Tour. He was a great guy and a great hang. He was always laughing and making me feel good about myself. My condolences to his friends, family, band. I assume that losing a band mate is something akin to losing a brother. I can't imagine how torn up they have to be.

The Sounds
We had some really fun shows in IL, OH, PA, and NY, but because of my cough, they weren't quite what they could've been. I worked hard at recuperating. Lots of sleep, meds, and tea.

Because I hadn't played a show healthy in a while, I was really excited to fly out to the west coast to start this last week of tour.
The shows have been some of the best of the tour, and we're all having a really great time spending these last few days together. Dave is only going to be playing with us for a couple more shows, so its great that we're loving every minute of them.

A big thank you goes out to all the friends that have come out to these shows and showered Dave and the band with support. We got a rad scrap book and a cool youtube video from some fans. We looked at both things together as a band, and we had some good times reminiscing about some golden olden days.

We're going to try work some tour olympics into these last few dates. Events may consist of Bocce Ball, Darts, Sharp Shooting, Scrabble, karaoke, etc.

Funny Pranks
Its getting to the part of a tour where bands and crew traditionally start pranking each other. We've pranked some people quite nicely in the past, but Relient K policy has morphed into opting for the treat rather than the trick. I'd rather do something funny to a band than something malicious.
I suppose karma was paying us back last night, when Switchfoot's lighting engineer, Taylor, decided to "prank" us. During our rendition of Sleigh Ride, Taylor repelled from the 40ft tall catwalk to the stage while dressed in the customary Santa Claus outfit. He threw out candy canes (you can see em in the photo) as he descended, and he brought joy to the faces of the children. It was honestly the coolest thing that's ever happened to us on stage.

Till next time.
Matty

Busy Week

2007-11-26T18:40:00.000-05:00

I meant to post yesterday or today, but fortunately I've been able to have enough fun things to do, that I haven't been able to spare any extra time on the world wide web of lies.
Soon.
Matty

Ohio Statement

2007-11-10T23:54:00.000-05:00

What the heck Buckeyes!? I promised all of my friends from Illinois that we were going to crush every ounce of dignity found in the hearts of the Champaign, Illinois fighting Illini (great team name by the way). Again, I was reminded that I don't know the first thing about the phrase "shoe-in". Ironically, whenever I claim something to be that, I end up with my foot in my mouth. My Chucks are too dirty to keep doing that.

I also bought a few records this week. I buy a lot of music on iTunes, but sometimes I feel tenacious enough to get off of my butt and actually go to a store to buy a physical copy of an album I want. On Tuesday night (the night before I had a 5 hour drive), I decided that I wanted to go get the new Say Anything. I love their "Is A Real Boy" record, and I had been looking forward to picking up the new one for a long time. I was so excited about getting it, that I went to a store (shall remain nameless) at 11am in my Uggs and sweat pants. If you know me, you know that I don't normally venture into public donning my PJs. So, I find the new Angels and Airwaves (which I wanted) right off the bat, but couldn't find the Say Anything record. They didn't have it. Then I looked for our Christmas disc. No dice (or any copies of "Let It Snow Baby...").Then I looked at the price on the A&A... $14.95! Why would I pay that, when I can get it on iTunes for $9.99!? So, I put it down, drove home, and bought some music from Charlotte's World Wide Web.

The last few shows have been a pleasant improvement from the last bunch. I like it when they don't cover the entire surface of the floor with chairs. I should be the chairman of the No Chairs Board. Someone should take a stand.

Caterpillar kisses,
Matty T.

The S--th

2007-11-06T16:38:00.000-05:00

Oh you.

And we're off.

The morning of October 29th was spent unprofessionally fastening siding to a Habitat For Humanity home in Baton Rouge, LA. It was fun. Maybe even more fun than the evening's musical performance (I was pretty wiped out by then).

Halloween night, I polished off the Silence Of The Lambs series. Hanibal Rising was the only one I hadn't seen, and it was pretty fantastic. It was cool watching them in order like that. Its almost like reading a book.
I dressed up like Tom Selleck dressed up as Matthew Thiessen from Relient K. Hoopes encouraged me to inform the next day's Columbia, SC crowd of said costume. After the show, Scarlett O'hara said to me, "I do declare, Mr. Thiessen, that went a bit over their heads!"
I love the s--th.
Scarlett was right though. The majesty of my costume was not nearly as embraced as it should have been by such a large, attentive group of people. The idea that Tom Selleck would even be savvy to the existence of our band is pretty funny. But if this past Halloween, the extent of his passion for our music led him to suit up in a homage drenched Matthew Thiessen costume!?...
Well, that'd be pretty funny as well.

For me to dress up as all of that, makes it a double costume. Its neat what you can do with a mustache and your own clothes.

Instead of Trick or Treating, John Warne bought three candy bars, said I could have one, and let me pick first. It was one Reese's new concoctions. You see, Reese just keeps his candy lovin' nose to the grindstone. He won't stop until he gets the perfect combination of carmel, milk chocolate, white chocolate, crunchy peanut butter, smooth peanut butter, wafers, nougat, roasted peanuts, etc. And even after he figures out the perfect blend, he has to decide on the shape. Will he choose cups, sticks, or pieces? We can only speculate. Once Reese nails it, we'll know. The whole world will know.
Anyway...
The one I had was pretty good. I just can't remember what kind it was. While we were indulging ourselves with the sugar at hand, John and I debated the last time we had a candy bar. The conclusion was more than a few months. When I was a kid, I told myself I would watch a million hours of cartoons and buy closets full of candy when I was an adult. I suppose I'm a failure.

Alright... Just because the Reese thing is such a rip off...

My mustache is dry clean only... Which means...

It's dirty.

Maybe I should have dressed up like a gangrene ridden comedian for Halloween. Rest in Reese's Pieces, Mitch.

Fantasy football was a nightmarish type of fantasy. The kind where the unicorn turns around and Whinny The Pooh is dangling bloody and lifeless from his horn. Broken shards of honey pot sticking out of his eyes.

Apparently I need to refrain from using the term "shoe in". Cause I shoe didn't win.

I've haven't been feeling well the last four days or so.
Boo freakin hoo.
Me, that's hoo.

Matty T.

"boooo!"

Hallowoes vs. Blood and Guts

2007-10-27T14:47:00.000-04:00

So I'm a little bummed. Halloween is quickly sneaking up on us (hopefully to scare the crap out of us), and don't feel that I can successfully participate in the holiday (at least not in the fervent manner for which my soul longs).

We don't have a show on Halloween, but we have to be on the road. I won't be able to walk around Town in some fantastic costume enhanced to the max by a REAL mustache.
"Hey... did you hear that guy dressed as (Burt Reynolds Edgar Allen Poe Teddy Roosevelt) actually grew a legit, attached to the face mustache!? He had to have committed to his costume weeks ago! Who would want to be (Burt Reynolds Edgar Allen Poe Teddy Roosevelt) so much that they would walk around Town with a mustache weeks before Halloween!? What a chowderhead."

In addition to the travel schedule, I won't really have the time or resources to prepare one of the (3) Halloween costumes I had in mind... especially not to the level of completion that's been floating around in that same mind.

In addition to that, my girlfriend has been making me jealous. Last night, she got to go to a birthday/Halloween party dressed as a really good lookin' Dorothy (Garland). Its the third year in a row that I've had to see her Halloween costume via the magic of camera phones. Those pictures are the same quality as magic poo. ... Anywhooo... My girl and I also went to an apple orchard/ pumpkin patch right before the tour started (she's sitting on those pumpkins in her myspace photo). We picked her out a really little pumpkin and me a tall, kinda skinny one to carve. At this point in the story, I suffer the same Hallowed fate as my good friend John Warne. Both John and I purchased an elegant , orange, orb of carve-able wonder and FORGOT to carve it before going on tour!
I think we're both still a bit sheepish about it.

All is not lost, however. I intentionally Netflixed all four of the Silence Of The Lambs series. I will begin watching them tonight after the Ohio State game. I can't decide if I should watch them in the chronological order of the plot, or in the order that they were released. I'm pretty sure I'll go with the release order. Either way, I'll have a Haniball. Haha. Who says "have a ball" anymore anyway. Old men? Am I an old man?

Last night I finished watching the Band Of Brothers series on DVD. As far as Halloween goes, it wasn't scary. However, it did have a plethora of gory footage (and I don't mean An Inconvenient Truth). Joking aside, Band Of Brothers was excellent for a variety of reasons. It was filmed well, it was written wonderfully, and it made me look at WWII in some new ways. Despite the fact that this country (and others) can't seem to stay out of wars, it seems as if our world has learned some crucial lessons from the detestable crimes of the Nazis. That can't happen again.

"Excellent report Mr. Thiessen. Please hand me that paper football and return to your desk."

In memory of Mrs. Homrichouser('s class)

Matthew Thiessen

Virginia's West Sieeede

2007-10-17T02:05:00.000-04:00

Its late and I'm tired, but I figured I'd jot a quick note down. I've spent the last two days in West Virginia preparing for and kicking off our new tour. The first show was tonight, and it wasn't as bad as a lot of our tour debuts. It definitely wasn't a tight set, but I'll take a C+ on the first show of a tour any day of the week.

I spent most of the afternoon on Sunday driving down to Nashville. This prevented me from enjoying any of NFL action, and I'm still not sure how I feel about that. I went to Nashville to re-sing some vocals on "Deck The Halls" for some Shrek Christmas special. Replace "deck" with "Shrek", and you're starting to get the vibe of it. I hope they use the song... it'll be funny to hear myself singing on something animated (other than the seemingly short-lived Woodland Forest episodes). After tracking the vocals, I drove up to downtown Nashville and hung out with my buddy Kevan (he ended up moving to Nashville instead of Florida). Unfortunately, I could only spare a bit more than an hour before I had to leave to get on the steel horse (that's Bon Jovi for tour bus).

I won again in Fantasy Football, the Browns won, and Ohio State looks like a beautiful bird perched atop the poll. #1 (for now).

And in closing....

I shaved my scruff yesterday. Did I miss a spot?

The answer is yes.

The area above my upper lip and below my nose is warmer than the rest of my face. I have achieved chowderhead status in all self-respecting social circles. I look too scary to babysit, and I have all the contraband that Bullwinkle was hiding under his bed.

My friends....

I have a moustache
(or as Bullwinkle put it, a moose stash)
Matty

Baby Got Back (80's edition)

2007-10-09T16:33:00.000-04:00

I'm back.

More importantly...

I think Baby Got Back should've been the title of Dirty Dancing II (pauses to confirm via Google that there was, in fact, a Dirty Dancing II). It should've been the story of how Baby came back from summer vacation, put on a creepy mask, and used her new dancing abilities to rip her victims limb from limb. Her victims.........?

Everyone.

Release date: Halloween 1988

It is almost that time of year, isn't it? I'm excited. Its my favorite season. As a kid I was set on it. I would sit and swing on my swingset around sunset, and I'd pretend to see thousands of bats flying all around in the changing leaves. I LOVED Halloween. (I was a weird kid. I had two twin imaginary friends. For a LONG time. Maybe I'll blog about that someday.)

The cruise was great. I did cruise for a bruise, but minimal burnage.

This story is better if you have seen "Say Anything". (1989)

Not the band... The movie, silly.

My buddy Josh and our respective lady friends were hanging out in my cabin, and these people on another balcony started blasting music really loud. I grabbed my portable iPod boombox, put on Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes", and blasted them out of the water (well, that would've blasted me out of the water too.... I just played the song REALLY loud). The best was that I did it standing like this (photo taken during performance)

She's gone. She gave me a pen. I gave her my heart, she gave me a pen.

Next item on 80's agenda. I've decided not to shave for a while, and go back to the mustache look. I should have a good start by the beginning of tour. I miss the stache. Its a really funny thing to walk through the world and have every stranger that you encounter think that you're a complete chowderhead.

I also miss the word chowderhead. I'm going to start a show called Chowderheads, and my buddies and I are going to film ourselves doing dumb stuff like giving ourselves paper-cuts and snorting wasabi. My name will be Matt. Other's will have names like Johnny Nashville and Ban Margarine!

I'll be rich. And there will be no more butter substitute.

Ok. Gotta get back to working on tour stuff. I'm waiting on Hoopes to tell me when he has to switch guitars during the show. Excitement! Rock and Roll!!!!

By the way, I won two games of Fantasy Football. One of them was against my good bud Joshy. It felt good to defeat him, but I felt sad that he had to lose... oh wait... nope... didn't feel bad at all.

Matthew.

Get it?

Tom Cruisin For A Bruisin

2007-09-28T23:40:00.000-04:00

I'm going on a cruise. I'm writing a children's book about it. The Nearly Albino Canadian Goes On A Cruise.

I'll come back and let you all know how bad the burn is.

Your 50 SPF friend,
Matthew

Experiment III

2007-09-27T23:35:00.000-04:00

Ok... I'm going to re-enable commenting on this thing. Just don't chat with each other in the comment zone. Please and thanks.

Grounded

2007-09-27T01:44:00.000-04:00

I didn't do anything wrong. Rather, we're not gonna be visiting this nation's finest airports for a while, so I won't have any more long flying stories or whiny blogs about delayed flights (hopefully I won't have to deal with that stuff for a while). Hence, I am grounded. Thank God.

Sorry about the last blogorino. I was trying to see if I could write something really long and boring and still have people read it. Some did. This whole blog thing is gonna be me testing any unfortunate readers like lab rats.

Oh dear.

This installment is short and weird. I'm gonna throw a poem on here. I envision it being read by Queen Latifah. She's royalty, you know.

A Poem. Haha. Gross.

Again, another attempt to throw you guys off my scent. This is a Pack Of Wild Blogs, you know.

Wild.

By the way, I'm not a nature monger or a tree hugger (I actually don't have any relationships with any trees that have reached the level of conversation. Embracing is a ways off, I should think) That aside, the moon was pretty much full, and the proceeding may mention girly clouds and stuff. Haha. Gross.

To Whom It May Concern,

Tonight the clouds rushed passed your monthly love obsession
Her Majesty,
The Fullest Of Moons

Dark clouds
Light clouds
Dense
Wispy
Vapors
Air

Tonight I hope
The Dark may once again be Light
Less Dense, Wispier
Vapors
Air

Cause you know you don't wanna miss a thing, Sugar

Sincerely,
Your Majesty,
The Fullest Of Moons

Sincerely,
Matthew

I lost this week in fantasy football. 2-1

You Do It To Yourself, You Do

2007-09-16T21:50:00.000-04:00

In Radiohead's song "Just", they described my weekend just right.
This blog is best viewed while listening to said song

I woke up at 615am on Friday morning. My flight was at 630am.

I was flying to Boise from Canton, OH. Two cities that could potentially be dubbed as very large towns. The smaller the city, the tougher it is to travel to by air.
So, I drove to the Akron/Canton airport, and they said there was nothing they could do... I assumed we'd have to cancel our Boise show, so I hung my head, and sadly said,"I'll just go home and go to bed". I was asleep for about 10 minutes when my phone rang. It was our manager. I almost ignored the call, because I had a premonition that he was going to have some crazy, inconvenient itinerary in store for me. I was correct. But I'm definitely glad I answered the call. He asked me if I could get to the Cleveland airport by 1pm. I had enough time to make it if I left right away. The airport is about an hour and a half from me, and my return flight was into Canton. This provided the slight problem that I couldn't leave my car at the airport for the weekend (as I had previously planned). This meant I had to find my stepdad, and ask him to sacrifice 3 hours of his life to drive my car back from Cleveland. I couldn't find him anywhere, but I called my Mom and she said he was out in the woods cutting down trees. I should've guessed. Isn't that what most people do on a Friday morning? Breakfast followed by a hearty session of TGIFSICCDST (Thank goodness its Friday so I can cut down some trees). So, as we were driving there, our manager called again and asked if I could possibly make a flight that departed at 12:20pm. Even though it seemed like a stretch, I accelerated to over 100 miles an hour and sped, screeched, and threaded my way through semi-truck infested waters. My step-dad said nothing, but I'm %94.3 positive that I scared him %47.82 to death. (thats almost ½) I figured that if Johnny Law had it out for me, I'd accept it as Freddy Fate telling me that Boise was no longer on the menu. (it is Freddy, right?) When I was getting close to the airport (at this time I was actually on schedule to make the unmake-able 1220), my phone rang again. It was our manager. Was he calling to tell me that my plans hadn't changed and that I was doing a great job getting to the airport? Naw. Naw, he wasn't. He and some other folks out in LA had decided it would be safest for me to take a 430pm flight instead. Boo. I was almost glad. I screwed up, and now I felt like I was getting punished. How just. I walked into the airport five hours early for my flight (at least I didn't oversleep this one). I sat down at a small round table outside a make-shift coffee stand. I didn't know what airline I was on. I couldn't check in. I had two bags and a big guitar, and I looked like a cat just coughed me up. Well... I looked like a lion or a snow leopard coughed me up. You know... a big cat. One that eats dudes. I also didn't want any coffee. I felt like I had no purpose. But then my phone rang. It was our manager. He said "Delta.", and I was on my way. At least until I went to the Delta counter and they told me they couldn't check me in. They had my reservation, but the payment hadn't gone through. I had up to five hours for the payment to go through, so I sat down at small round table at a mirror image, make-shift coffee shop... not to be confused with the other one that was 100 yards away. 20 minutes later, I finally checked in (I won't bore you with the details... [that's a joke {eff why eye}]), and I went through SSSSecurity (some of you know what that means). I sat down at Max and Erma's in the B terminal and ordered a bit of lunch. I glanced at my phone, it was a bit after noon, and I thought it was the craziest thing. I NEVER eat lunch at noon. NOT EVER. I looked all around, and all the power-suits, ties, and briefcases were eating their noon day meals with the satisfied look of tray wielding 4th graders sitting down in the cafeteria after the 5th period bell rings. Lunch at noon. The norm. The routine. I said a little prayer, thanking God that I'm not playing for team 9 to 5, when I realized that we're all pretty much lemmings in our own right. For instance, I know that I would've been having the best day of my life if it was a Saturday or Sunday rather than a TBIF (too bad its Friday). Saturday and Sunday provide me with the football that I routinely watch (with the satisfaction of a cereal bowl wielding 4th grader sitting down to watch Saturday morning cartoons at 5am). Matt Hoopes thinks I'm silly cause I like football so much. I agree with him, but I don't mind being silly. Its always looked good on me.

Okay, okay... If you're still with me, I applaud you. I'm really just trying to write the most boring blog of all time. I entered a competition.

I camped out in Max and Erma's for an hour or so, and then watched Flight Of The Conchords at the gate until it was time to fly to my connecting airport, Salt Lake City. There were definitely more guys than girls on the plane, so the gender percentage was Morman than woman. Groan. Cough. Groan. Ha. Morman jokes write themselves. Either that, or I am AWESOME. My flight in SLC was delayed to the point that when I deplaned in Boise, I was already supposed to be on stage for fifteen minutes. I was late. But we didn't cancel. And it all payed off. I walked onto the stage 45 minutes late and had a really really fun (not entirely professional) show. We were playing a homecoming pep rally for the Boise State Broncos' football team. (They were the one's that, last year, won their bowl game with an awesome statue of liberty play afterwhich the running back made a beeline from the end zone to the feet of his cheerleader girlfriend and proposed). A couple thousand people showed up to watch us, and they stuck around even though we were late starting. The sound system was way to small, but the energy of everyone was so electric that I didn't care about the tech problems, and just had a good time. After the show Joshy, Dave, and I played three quick games of darts in the hotel lobby. I was dog tired, but darts are my drug (Remember?)

The next day was Colorado. Highlights include hanging out with Quietdrive and Josh Hoge, meeting some of John & Sarah Warne's buddies, and seeing a guy's foot gushing out more blood than I'd ever seen a foot gush.

Matthew Thiessen

Oh yeah, today's highlights include my advancement to 2-0 in fantasy football, and the Browns kicking some Bengals' tail. Not just their tail... their cute, little, dude-eating cat faces too. Kicked em hard. In the face.

Did I mention I like the Browns? ↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓

As A Matter Of Fact, I AM Ready For Some Football

2007-09-09T22:57:00.000-04:00

I'm happy about this. My first week of fantasy seems to be going well. Won't know till tomorrow, but I think I've got a W wrapped up. The Browns, on the other hand, suck. I woke up at the crack of noon (on not much sleep), and Dave, Joshy, and I went to some crappy sports bar in Georgia to watch as many football games as we could. Dave and I are big time Browns fans, and after the game, I looked at him and said "It's going to be a long year."
Its going to be a great year, though. Cause its footbal.

Matthew Thiessen

I Just Wanna Shoot Lasers Out Of My Eyes

2007-08-28T15:57:00.000-04:00

But today my girlfriend had lasers shot into her eyes. I got to watch!

My girl had some LASIK done today. They had a camera zoomed way up on her eyeball, and I got to watch them dismantle and repair her peepers.

I didn't bring my camera, but the procedure looks like this

At the establishment that she visited, they cut her eyes open with lasers, instead of a blade. I was a bit bummed I didn't get to see them saw her eye like they do most places. Did you see the see saw as I saw it?

Hmmmm....

Anyway...

This was brought to you by the conjugation of the verb "to see", lasers, googly eyes, and fun.

Matthew Thiessen

I Just Wanna Fly

2007-08-25T14:15:00.000-04:00

Except I DON'T! Ugh. I had a terrible week of fraternization with United, Northwest, and American Airlines. Matt Hoopes and I combined for a mind shattering 30+ hours of delayed flights since last Sunday (his overnight stint in Philly helps exaggerate the statistic quite a bit). We almost missed shows, we spent an unearthly amount of time sitting in gate areas, and we actually had to skip a leg of a flight and rent a car to reach a destination. I'm about to drive home from Nashville, and I couldn't be happier that the tires of my car are staying on the ground. Air travel has become such a hassle these days. Its kind of sad, but Matt has to fly to San Diego today for some vacation. I think the last thing he wants to do is to put his tray table up, and make sure his seat back is in the upright and locked position.

I had a really awful show last night. We were in OKC, and Johnny Raincloud decided to relieve himself all over my electronic gear. My gear, upset about getting wet, decided to the best way to exercise some revenge was to cease operations. Boo.
I need a hug.

Put your arms around me baby
Put your arms around me baby

Matty T.

Kudos

2007-08-22T14:03:00.000-04:00

I'm pretty sure that kudos is Greek for glory. It was also a granola candy bar back in the day. My mom used to get those. Anyway, kudos to Brittany on myspace for finding my blog before I told anyone (besides Jon Schneck) about it. Brittany is one of 10 girls that write me multiple messages EVERYDAY on myspace. Wow.

So, we played a show in NY with Mat Kearney last week, and the next day we played a show with Daughtry at a county fair in Michigan. Daughtry had some "support" tour passes whipped up, and they had he and his band portraying the American heroes known best as GI Joe. I checked to see if John or Jon put up a pic of the pass, and I don't think they did.... so ....

BAM!!!
Oh dear... its backwards. Hey kids!!!! Can YOU decipher the hidden message on the tour pass?!?!?! No!? Try holding the picture up to a mirror!

After we did the fair in Michigan (by the way, Dave and some friends snuck back into the fair after closing and unsuccessfully tried to hot-wire the ferris wheel), we had a random day off in my home town of Canton, OH. Since my car wasn't there (its still in Nashville from recording the Christmas stuff), I never even went home. I took my mom out to Applebee's. She called me up and said "Yo, Matty. Hows about we go get ourselves kicked outta Applebee's." And I said, "Aww Mom! Can't we just sit down and have a normal meal without you making some crazy scene!?" After the fire department showed up, the cops let us go, and I met up with some friends for some darts and high fives.

After the day at home, we played a festival in PA, and then went back to Nashville. I saw Superbad with my buddy James. It was pretty funny, but its kind of crazy how crass movies have become. I just wrote an entire paragraph of commentary on the matter, but decided not to post it. Ha. I hate that I have to edit myself all the time. Better safe than sorry though.

I think the Caveman show is going to be terrible

I'm excited for college and professional Football to begin... This is my first year doing fantasy football, and I've already got Willie Parker and LT. I hope that they make up for my lack of experience.

I ran too much yesterday and I threw up (I normally only do 3 to 4 miles).

I'm about to go run again and try not to throw up.

I'll probably post one or two more of these, and then tell people about it.

If you don't message me everyday on myspace, ignore the following postal script.

Stay outta the blog pound.

Matthew Thiessen

PS
Since I know that you myspace ladies are the only ones reading this blog right now (save Schneck), I'll take this opportunity to say hello. Thank you all for being so nice and writing me all the time. Its really flattering. I'm sorry that I don't respond. I don't really like myspace, and I primarily use it to keep up with friends that I had BEFORE myspace. Also, I don't know why you guys write me so much, but as an older (and perhaps wiser) human being, allow me to bestow upon you a wee bit of advice. Cherish these days of being young and free. Instead of writing me and being on the internet so much, do something productive. When I was in high school, I had a job, and when I wasn't working, I was teaching myself how to play the guitar.

All this to say, I obviously don't care that you guys write me. If I have time, I browse through your messages (you have to understand that there's ten of you). I just don't want you guys to miss out on living your lives because you're on the computer all the time.
Love ya

Today Is My Christmas... Except Its Mattmas

2007-08-13T00:02:00.000-04:00

I had a good day today. Probably the best birthday in a while. Last year was interesting, because I saw just one human being the whole day, and he didn't know it was my bday. I received no in-the-flesh birthday salutation, and even though I'm not really into celebrating such an individualistic "holiday", I feel like every birthday boy or girl should have to say "Thanks! I'm an old fart now!" or "You remembered!!! You crazy kook!".

Today, I was surrounded by two parents, three siblings, two sibling-in-laws, one brother of a sibling-in-law (you'd think that would count, but its technically not a relation), four nephews, a niece, and one amazing girl that's a friend (that's more than a friend). The siblings, some friends, and the girlfriend also hung out with me the night before, so I got a really heart warming dose of family in the last 24 hours. What a good gift. So much better than last year.

The two ladies that put my name on my DQ ice cream cake left a note in the box. I don't know how they knew the cake was for me, but apparently they dig the band, and they wanted me to stop by and say hello before 430p... didn't make it in time.

Because of the band, I often feel like I don't get to visit my family enough. Today, I was actually questioned, by my sister, if I knew which one of my nephews she was holding. I knew the answer, but the question said a lot about how often I'm around.

My girlfriend got me a compass for my birthday (I really wanted one). I know which way the North Pole is. Its this way ----> . But only if you're sitting on my couch.

Matthew Thiessen

Fuitile Dronings

2007-08-11T01:19:00.000-04:00

To drone is to speak tediously in a dull monotonous tone... so you have to imagine me saying this stuff aloud that way.

I haven't even told anyone I have a blog yet. That makes this kind of awkward. You see, I'm writing about my personal life, and no one is going to read it. That makes this more of an easily breakable brass lock sort of diary than a blog. The best part is that after people know I have a blog, a couple of people are going to read this, and they'll get creeped out.
Stop reading my private thoughts that I openly posted on the world wide, highly traveled, information superhighway!!!!!
Chuckle.

So... we finished the Christmas record today for the most part... Ethan Luck is still yet to add some lap steel to a folky/country Christmas song I wrote. I'm excited that he's playing on the record. A bunch of the songs turned out better than I thought. I was thinking that our covers of Sleigh Ride and Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas may turn out dull. They turned out to be pretty interesting (especially for how basic Christmas carols can be).

I had a good time down in Nashville while recording. I was pretty busy in the studio, but I still managed to see a band a really like (Manchester Orchestra), hang out with some old Ohio buddies (Adam White of Eureka Gold, and my old roomie Kevan Peden), see some former Ohio buddies (the LaCroix's), and I played a TON of darts with our monitor guy, Joshy.

Manchester Orchestra was fantastic. It was probably over 100 degrees in there, and I've never sweat so much while standing in one spot. The band was about perfect and really entertaining, but I just wanted to go outside and cool off in the much more refreshing 97 degree weather.

Kevan Peden interests me. Kevan and I lived together forever, and he's one of my most cherished friends. He's a nomad though. Its cool with me, because I get to travel and see him quite a few times a year.... BUT, since Kevan and I have lived together, he's moved from Orlando to Naples back to Ohio... all the while, he's talking about moving to Eugene, Jacksonville, or Arkansas. He's yet to figure out where he wants to be, and that's totally cool. I wish him the best.
The reason I bring all this up, is because I like it when Kevan is in Ohio, cause I get to see him the most when he's there. He recently bummed me out when he told me he was moving back to Orlando (for the 2cnd time). The funny thing is, is that on his way down from Ohio, Kevan decided to stop in Nashville. Adam White, an old friend of his (and a more recent friend of mine), had moved from Ohio (to Boston and then) to Nashville with his band Eureka Gold (I got to see them while I was here... they're great). Well, when Kevan was just outside of Nashville, he thought that he might just stay in Nashville longer than for the one night that he had planned. And because he was here and I was here, we got to hang out. While doing so, Kevan hinted to the fact that he was thinking about staying in Nashville permanently instead of going back down to FL. This idea excited me, because I'm always in Nashville (band practice, recording, leaving for tour, etc...), and I'd probably see Kevan in TN more than when he lived in OH. I know it sounds girly, but having your good buds around is a big thing for me. I hope he decides to stay. I called up my buddies Steve and James LaCroix, and they met all of us at a Eureka Gold show. I got to see Adam play, and we all hung out afterwards. James hadn't seen Kevan for four or five years. The number staggered me, because Kevan, James, and I used to spend almost every weekend crashing on Matt Hoopes' basement couches and floor. Those were some good times, but so was hanging out with everyone again.

My dart game has improved. Josh is still destroying me "most" of the time, but the "most" was about "half" by the end of the week. We played so many games. I definitely have a bit of an addiction. I'm going to draw bullseyes on my arm, and inject darts. Its the gateway drug.

Oh by the way... since no one knows I have a blog, everything I just wrote was futile.

Futile Dronings.

Matty T

Welcome To The Pack

2007-08-05T20:33:00.000-04:00

You must be bored. You're reading my first post ever! Its really only going to be slightly longer than this, so enjoy. I started a blog. I'm gonna post on it. Hopefully we'll get it synced with the Relient K site soon. I heart you.
Matthew Thiessen