Desoto Jones

Deutschland (Part 4)

Hi,

I am going to try to keep it a little more brief this time and just give you the real meat and potatoes or 'fleisch und kartoffeln' in deutsch.

Probably the biggest highlight since last time is the fact that I had the opportunity to drive on the autobahn. I was a little bit nervous at first, but we rented an Audi A4 to go to Hamburg so I decided to go for it. We had some carpoolers with us who we didn't know so I couldn't really go too crazy but I took it up to 190 km/h or 118 mph. It felt pretty cool to be able to sustain that kind of speed for a while, but there were people definitely going way faster. Not everybody can say "I've driven on the autobahn in Germany," but now I can.

When we got to Hamburg, we went next door to Christin's friend's house for a BBQ. I got into a conversation with some people and after discussing TV, food, and beer I asked, "Have any of you ever had the American Budweiser?" because it's probably the quintessential 'American beer'. The one guy, Robert, responded, "Look, we watch your American TV, we eat your burgers, but we are going to drink OUR beer." I thought that was a pretty hilarious statement and I had to agree with his decision.

The next night was Christin's brother's graduation ball which was a lot of fun. This band of complete animale high school students got on stage and covered 'My Sharona' among other songs. What blew me away was their cover of "Jesus Christ" by Brand New. It caught me off guard completely. I would have preferred to listen to them all night as opposed to the repetition of Shakira's "Africa" and Katy Perry's "California Gurls" mixed in with techno that I was subjected to. There were these two German fellows wearing short pants doing this crazy dance during Shakira though and I managed to get video of it. Check facebook for pictures and video. The other negative thing was that it was a cash bar so Christin's dad sneaked in various mini bottles of Scotch and we buried them all night.

Sunday was the 4th of July so I felt it appropriate to meet up with a fellow Amerikan in Germany - the one and only Luke Kronawitter. We walked down this unreal hill that would make for some pretty great sledding in the winter and set up a BBQ on the beach of the Elbe River. There were huge barges and ships going through which was very cool to watch.

Upon our return to Cologne, we met some friends at an XXL Restaurant that specializes in XXL foods. They make gigantic burgers, schnitzels, bratwursts, steaks, etc. I took on a 'Little Big Food' schnitzel rather than the 'Big Food'. This thing was massive and delicious. However, I could not finish it. I was literally in pain and couldn't fit a single bite more into my body. Some friends ordered the 'Big Food' burger to share and it is the single biggest food item I've seen in person. It was like the size of a large pizza. Massive. We also ordered a couple 3 liter beers and passed them around the table. It was a lot of fun and there are pictures on facebook. When we asked how much the 3L beer glass would cost if we wanted to buy it, the waitress told us 70 euros. So instead we wrapped it in a jacket and snuck it out the front door. I'm pretty sure the waitress knew what we were up to so I slipped her an extra 5 euro tip on our way out.

One last thing I need to mention are the German bottle opening skills. They are like the MacGuyvers of bottle opening. I attempted to open a bottle with another bottle while intoxicated and cut my thumb. Pretty embarrassing but it was a learning experience.

I'll check in again soon and thanks for reading!

-Adam

A in Deutschland (Part 3)

Hi to the few of you who are keeping up with my travels in Deutschland-

So last Friday night Christin and I just went out for dinner at some Italian place. I thought to myself, why would I want to eat Italian in Germany, but contrary to popular belief they do not eat only sausages and schnitzels here. There are tons of Chinese and Italian places. There's a middle eastern and a Mexican place nearby also. The food at the Italian place was mediocre, but Christin enjoyed hers.

The next morning we woke up to meet some friends at a lake. We rode our bikes for about an hour with fields on both sides of the road. There are open fields here all over the place which is something I'm not accustomed to. I think we develop just about every open acre of land we can see, right? Anyway, we get to the lake and it's just beautiful. There is a huge grass area for people to play soccer or what have you and then there's a beach by the lake. It was probably 80-85 degrees, perfectly sunny and the water was nice. I got a decent sunburn going. Also, they really enjoy beach volleyball here. There are even 'beach' clubs all over that have volleyball courts and sand.

When we had enough of the beach, we headed to the grocery store to obtain some fresh meats for BBQ'ing while we watch the US World Cup game. I cracked open a Czech Budweiser (which kills the 'king of beers' that we have in the US) and began grilling with our teeny little charcoal grill. There is no substitute for charcoal by the way. Gas grills can eff off as far as I'm concerned...

So while I'm grilling, our two friends, Mr. Fronz (or Koenig) and Manu, arrive. We are all out on the deck when Christin's neighbor pops his head over and invites us to come and drink the 'best schnapps you can get in all of Deutschland'. So we oblige him. We head over to their BBQ next door and are immediately given a huge shot of Kirsch (cherry) schnapps. Now where I come from, schnapps is sugary, sweet, and weak. However, here the schnapps is 45% alcohol and not sweet at all. This shit packs a punch. So we put down what appears to be a double shot. I have to say that it went down smoother than any alcohol I've ever had. Did not burn or anything. I didn't even have to make the whiskey face. Our hosts then proceeded to fill our glasses two more times - keep in mind we haven't eaten yet... So we talk for a minute then have to get back to our grilling but we assured them we'd come back later.

So we enjoyed our food and headed back over to the neighbors. This time we are greeted with a glass of 3/4 raspberry vodka and 1/4 (maybe... maybe not even 1/4) cranberry juice. So we are drinking this and beering also. Now I haven't even finished my beer or my drink and they are cracking me a new beer. It's going to be a long night.

As the game finishes and it's getting dark, our hosts relocate to a circle on the grass where they proceed to partake in some tweeds together. I managed to make my way over AFTER this so I was excused. However, a glass of grappa is passed my way. This is an Italian alcohol made from grape skins and stems I believe... It's pretty strong so I take a nip and pass it back.

Next thing I know, this animale who lives nearby points to Mr. Fronz, Manu, and myself and says "Come with me." So we shrug and follow him over to his apartment (which is beautiful and on the top floor with an awesome balcony and tons of foliage from his menagerie of plants and flowers). He breaks out a bottle of sparkling wine and fruit juice which we polish off quickly and then he pulls out a bottle of red wine which we also put down rather quickly. It is apparent that we are all pretty hammered when this guy pulls out this brownish looking egg thing which he claims is a 'half diamond'. I have no clue what that is... So finally Christin comes to find us because we've been gone a while. We wrap things up there and head back to the apartment where we crack open some 'coke and bier' mixers. I had a couple of Jack Daniels shot bottles from Christin's dad so we put those down as well. Then I decide to pour shots of this Waldmeister liquer that we have. It tastes good but it's got cream in it and it was just not a good time to drink that type of drink... Manu pulls out the 'half diamond' brown egg thing that was apparently a gift from the guy. I think his name was Kort but I can't be sure. So you can see the egg in the facebook pictures I've posted. I also have a video from this night but I'm not sure if I should post it or not...

So now it's probably about 3am and the guys decide to head home on the bikes. They could barely stay up on their bikes but they assured us they would be fine. We found out the next day that they did make it home, but Mr. Fronz lost his borrowed bike along the way somewhere. He has no idea where it could be.

I had to purge myself of the massive quantities and types of alcohol I had consumed before bed which might make me a pussy, BUT I slept like a baby afterward. Sunday was a complete wash however.

On Monday we all went for doner kebabs. I tried the 'doner durum' which is a doner that is made inside of what is similar to a burrito tortilla but it's stiffer so it can be rolled like a burrito but the ends don't need to be folded under. Hard to explain but I'll try to take a pic next time. Needless to say it was delicious. Christin had a regular doner and after about four or five bites, she was full and I inherited it and conquered it. Then we went over to Mr. Fronz's apartment where Christin, Sarah, Basti, Mr. Fronz and I enjoyed fresh caipirinha's courtesy of Basti.

That's all for now. We are heading to Hamburg for the weekend so I'll check in again next week probably. Thanks for reading!

-Adam

Adam in Deutschland (Part 2)

Guten tag!

I wanted to check in with some new stories, anecdotes, observations and other bullshit from my excursion to Germany. I will do my best to recap the highlights since the last post; hopefully I don't forget anything!

So after several days of beautiful sunny days between 75-80 degrees, the temperature dropped to the 50s for a couple of days. I was unprepared for the change and paid the price when we sat outside at a local bar to watch the second Germany soccer game. For the second half of the game, we moved inside and got something to eat. Christin and some of her friends ordered burgers; I ordered the currywurst. My digestive tract will never be the same... I witnessed our friend begin to eat his burger with a fork and knife. I explained to him that this is a no-no and the retort of another friend sitting nearby was "But you call fussball 'soccer'!" So if somebody wants to eat their burger with a fork and knife, just shut up and let them do what they like.

The following day Christin and I went to the Cologne Zoo. It is a very nice zoo and has been around for a couple hundred years now. They have all of the standard zoo animals, but I was intrigued by the fact that in Germany a raccoon is a zoo animal. They don't have them here so people see them in zoos. As we moved through the zoo, we came upon the grizzly bears. I was just admiring the size and power of the grizzly when the arrogant bastard walked right up to the front of the enclosure, turned around and unleashed a stream of excrement. Luckily there was a deep moat around the enclosure which put a good 20 feet between myself and the shit stream. It was quite a sight to see and Christin and I count ourselves lucky to be the only spectators there.

We also encountered a monkey laying on a sort of hanging shelf in his cage with his balls draped decoratively over the edge for onlookers to marvel at. They were like a couple of magical orbs just floating there. There were some other cool things about this zoo like the fact that you can actually see the hippos unlike the Philly zoo where about once every millennium the hippos poke their heads out and can be seen. It's like fucking Haley's Comet or something.

Moving on to a new topic, I asked some people about the lack of rock music in Germany. Everyone is listening to 'house' or 'techno' or 'dance' or whatever you want to call it. It was explained to me that rock music is good for working out, etc. but when they want to party they want to hear 'techno'. I guess they don't find rock music fun. I also learned that the 'rock' or 'alternative' types of people are 'weird' and only really associate with each other. Strange. I guess it beats hearing 'Don't Stop Believing' and 'American Girl' all the time. This is only the opinion of a few people I talked to; it's not empirical data from a widespread study I'm conducting or anything...

I believe I mentioned the awesome running trails nearby in the last blog. Christin took me to another trail which led to a clearing where there was a legitimate shepherd with dogs who were tending a flock of sheep. It was strange to me to see a shepherd and his sheep and in the background there are tall buildings of the city. It made for good scenery while running though. I'll try to grab a picture sometime. That leads me to think I should post some pictures from my trip to correspond with these blogs. I'll look into that... You definitely need to see the monkey balls - we have a great photo of them.

Last night we went to a BBQ at the fraternity house and watched the Germany fussball (notice I didn't say soccer) game. There was a plethora of delicious meats and sausages. It beat the hell out of burgers and hot dogs - although I do love them very much. Some of the people at the BBQ were drinking a wheat beer mixed with banana juice. It was interesting but not something I'd want to drink. I consumed about 3 liters of beer and had to participate in 3 of the 'bier junge' chug contests I mentioned before. THEN had to get on a bike and ride 30 minutes in pitch black back to our apartment. It sounds fun, but it is not fun trying to balance on a bike without being able to see five feet in front of you. But it makes getting home feel pretty great.

What does today hold for me? I'm not sure, but I hope there is a doner kebab in the near future. It's about 80 degrees and perfectly sunny. I am trying to allow myself to appreciate this amazing experience. I have a tendency to get caught up and not appreciate the moment while it's happening.

I'll check in again soon and I hope you are finding these worth reading!

Your pal,
Adam

Adam in Deutschland.

Hi everyone,

As you may know, I am spending the summer in Germany with Christin. The other guys will be doing some shows and keeping the band alive, but enough about them. I have been in Germany for a little over a week and so far I have had a few adventures.

First, I learned that riding a bike in Germany is to be taken very seriously. You use hand/arm motions to signal for a turn. Really. I also learned that riding a bike after not having done so in about 15 years can create a tender perineum, taint to the lay-folk, region.

Christin and I went to a frat party last week. I was instantly welcomed with open arms by people willing to speak English and to share their beer with me. I was beaten unmercifully by the head of the frat in a chug contest where you chug a .2 liter beer as far as you can. This is called 'bier junge'. I also learned of the ancient 'fencing' tradition of this fraternity that you can only witness as a member. No exceptions, even for a handsome American.

I ate a doner kebab. I fell in love with these delicious sangwiches last time I was in Germany. Warm flatbread, shaved lamb meat, cold cucumbers, cabbage, yogurt sauce, hot sauce... It is a dream come true. I will be eating one for dinner tonight as well.

We spent last weekend in Hamburg with her family. I went out drinking with her brother and his buddy. We sat down in an Irish pub and these two young men instantly drained a 1.5 liter pitcher each. Within ten minutes. I explained that I prefer to pace myself and enjoy the beer. They did not understand what the fuck I was talking about. But we drank beer, had shots, talked about life and then scoured the area at 3am for a doner kebab. We did not find any, although we did find a few small gangs of thugs. I was told to 'walk in the middle' to emphasize our size I guess? We didn't end up in any trouble but we did not find doner. So I had to settle for a chicken burger from McDonald's which tastes like sweet and sour chicken on a bun. It wasn't bad.

The next night Christin's amazing family cooked a huge BBQ including various sausages and grilled meats, salads, etc. It was quite delicious. One of my favorite things is the grilled feta cheese. It's a block of feta that's cooked on the grill so it's melty and warm. So good.

Sunday we went to the Hamburg Fisch Markt. We woke up at 5am and got there by 6am. It was flooded with people stumbling around with fisch brotchen (fish sandwiches). They finish their night out drinking by coming to the fisch markt for food. There were all types of fish, fresh fruit, other foods, bread, clothing and even live animals for sale. An Irish pub nearby was still packed including the outdoor bier garten which was full of people pounding beer at 6am. This begs the question, were they just getting started or continuing from the day before? Either way, they are all true animals at heart.

Continuing further, there was this huge warehouse where loud music could be heard. Upon wading through the crowd, one can see a cover band playing "brown sugar" by the Rolling Stones. People are also enjoying beer here. It's 6am on a Sunday by the way.

Feeling completely inadequate and ashamed of myself, I enjoyed a fisch brotchen with Christin and a fresh baked pretzel and we went home to go back to sleep.

Later that evening we attended the public viewing of the Germany World Cup game. These people love their country. Everyone had on the German colors, face paint/makeup, were waving flags, drinking, and singing. It was sort of overwhelming because I do not speak much German and was at risk of getting separated from the group in a sea of super fans, but I made it out alive. All in all it was a good time.

The next morning we went to the train station to meet up with a car pool back to Cologne. The guy arrived 30 minutes late with too many passengers. Once that was sorted out, we got on our way to Cologne in his old Nissan which sounded like it was about to drop the transmission, engine, and all four tires at any second. The driver proceeded to turn a 4 hour drive into a 6 hour drive by texting and talking on his cell, reading the paper off of the lap of the front passenger, making/reading notes on a little piece of paper, and just genuinely being a fucking social misanthrope and complete moron.

When we arrived at a free public bathroom, he decided to piss outside. When we arrived at McDonald's, he didn't eat and decided to stop shortly after to eat for 20 minutes while the rest of us waited. I have a lot of distaste for this man.

We were glad to make it back to Cologne with our lives, however.
It is beautiful here. The weather has been about 70-75 and sunny. There is a lake with running/walking/biking trails about ten minutes away by bike. It's very nice and peaceful.

Thanks for reading and I'll try to check in again soon!

Your pal,
Adam

new songs, new year, new expectations.

Hey all,
First off, thank you for the kind words on our new songs...these are just the tip of the iceberg, but we are glad you like!

Also-we got the emails and messages and fixed our player so now you can yet again add our songs your own myspace page. We encourage you do so!

I speak for the band when I say I sincerely appreciate the support you all have given us. Were it not for you-our progress would not be sustainable.

I hope you all have a splendid holiday with your family and friends.

We have a show @ The Trocadero ( the MAINSTAGE) in Philadelphia on January 18th. Please contact us for cheaper tickets/to reserve them. Please msg ASAP - we only have 50 tickets at this reduced price.

We hope 2009 treats Desoto Jones and our amazing friends ( you are friends, not fans) well.


here's to our future,
Cheers.

The new songs

Hey all, its been far too long.
Don't worry, I won't be ranting and raving any political bullnanny at you during this blog. No, none at all actually.

I am just too excited at what we have accomplished in the studio in a past few days. The songs aren't done yet, but what we have right now is truely moving. I, for one, can't wait to share these songs with you.

It is apparent that the loss of Adam, Owen, and Justin's father has affected us all not just personally but also in our music. The band is naturally progressing musically-the music is poignant and Owen's lyrics are devastatingly sincere. All facets of his life have been affected by this loss. Their is, however, a sense of hope in the lyrics and accompanying music.
Here is the way I see it...
In these 3 songs, I feel like we have displayed a 3 phases of life, love, and loss:
1. A relationship through hard times: the start of a relationship being forged despite pasts that could have steered it off the track.
2. The loss of a father: from the point of view of the son telling the father how his passing on has affected the son's mother.
3. The realization of the loss and life after the fact: how you looks at things differently, how the timing of a loss can sour one's outlook on a season, how things just don't feel the same. However, life must go on, the band must go on- for this is what Mr. Staszewski would expect from us. Things will all make sense in the end.


I don't intend to bring your spirits down friends, just wanted to give you my personal take on the 3 songs that we will be debuting for you this November.

take care now.

Wow, wow. wow

Hey all,

We are busy writing some new tunes that are coming out really amazing. We hit the studio in October and couldn't be more stoked. We will release the 3 new songs in some fashion whether it be digital only is not clear yet... We are playing a few awesome shows this fall when we aren't practicing or in the studio. Come show your support.

Lots of things have happened in the world since we last talked.

Let's recap:

The VMA's were a disgusting display of what music has come to: Jonas Brothers (seriously, they are not The Beatles....barf....), bad R&B (I was picturing fat rosy- cheeked white kids bopping around to Rhianna/Chris Brown jamz, yikes.)

I literally felt sick and could not bear to watch more than 30 minutes. Disney has taken a hold of the music industry, I don't get it and probably never will! Do I sound like my parents?

Anywho, the other story: GOP selects Sarah Palin. She is worse than the Jonas Brothers and is so right wing that it should scare all of you semi-educated civilians. See, I don't hate McCain. But, he is a liar. He said he would run a clean campaign and he has lied about virtually everything.

He picked Palin to court women voters. WOMEN, this is an insult to you. Just because she is a woman doesn't qualify her for your vote. I didn't like Hillary, but she is ten-fold more competent. You need to look at the issues and her hard-line stances. It is frightening. But social issues aside, she has already professed that she hasn't thought much about foreign policy or the war in Iraq. This troubles me greatly because it keeps me up at night and fills my days reading about the hazards of the occupation and I am only in a band for christsakes......

She already said unnecessary words about invading Russia. PEOPLE, the point is not whether Russia is bad or not, THEY ARE. But no politician is dumb enough to suggest invading a country on a hypothetical. This desperate housewife has got to go...

On another disappointing note: the GOP really, really angered me when they used a graphic 9/11 tribute during their convention. 9/11 was a shocking and sad day for all of us. Any tribute should be to salute the dead, to honor victims and their families. It SHOULD NOT be used to terrify Americans into voting for their party because "they" will keep the country safe. "They" have proved they made us less safe and more hated in the past 8 years. 9/11 is not a campaign slogan, you should be ashamed of yourselves. I don't consider myself a "democrat", I am an independent. BUT, to suggest Republicans love this country and citizens more than I do makes my blood boil. American Flags on SUV's and voting against your economic and social self-interest is NOT PATRIOTISM.

Getting this country in the right track IS patriotic.

I love my country and have a deep sense of pride it. Normally I wouldn't push the issue but this is a critical moment.

We are better than this.

Please go out and vote for the Obama/Biden ticket.

Comment your thoughts and Ideas!

much love, ean

AMERICA, WAKE UP!

Holy hell, I just have to vent for a minute.

I had some free time today so I was on myspace and was sort of surfing from page to page listening to bands, desperately seeking anything that is half worthwhile. The task proved harder than I thought.

Well, I realized we should have not named our last album "Aurora"....

My first choice was "The Feminization of America". It is the only words I can muster up to explain the terrible trends that are crushing the music world and the current culture of America. Every band I heard today looks exactly the same, sounds exactly the same and have the worst musical and lyrical ideas. I know I'm 26, but I am not out of touch.

Enough with the swoopy haircuts, tight jeans, silly "feeling it" stage performance,
and fake outrage and heartbreak.

Brutal bands: Stay in the garage and focus on your imitation-laden music, poor lyrics, and unoriginal thoughts. Music is not just "fun" for me. It is a release.

I'm unhappy with how the "scene" has evolved. You can't even call it that anymore... Kids and bands today have no idea what it was like 10-12 years ago, at least around here. Each of us were in different bands (there were only a handful then) and we helped build this scene. I can't help but shake my head when I see the younger bands today and think of what it was like around this area when we were that age. Part of me feels really bad for them. Part of me resents them for ruining what was a big part of my life.

The mentality of "lets start a dancy band, tour right away, add millions to our myspace, that'll be fun" is killing music. You have watered down what people/bands before you have killed themselves to build.

I talk to Adam about this often: most shows we play are with bands that have no real interest in other bands (or even music) besides themselves. When their set is done, they go in their brand new "daddy bought van and trailer" and play on their sidekick, adding random people to their myspace, and fixing their hair. Rarely do they ever watch other bands. I'm not even sure if they know other bands are on the bill.

I am proud of Desoto Jones for many reasons. We have been through a lot together, we have done some great things and 5 years later we feel like this is just the beginning. The one thing I am really proud of is that we put careful thought and detail into our music. We don't just create for other people or for "fun". We have to do this. Mentally, we would be wrecks if we weren't creating and writing.

I'm excited for our future because I think we can reverse some of the awful trends that have overtaken music.

We still need your help.

Olympics+Generation Kill= I'm head over heels

hey all,
It's been a while-hope some of you are still reading this. I wish we had a way you could comment on this-I'll work on it.
Our forum, it looks like has been hacked, I should get on that as well.

All is well in the Desoto Camp-We have been working on a few songs we will record in September-they are coming out amazing and I'm excited about our current chemistry.

We put up a live version from Radio 104.5 in Philly of "Head Over Heels" by Tears for Fears on our myspace- go listen to the sweet honey-suckle like guitar stylings. Adam was plucking quite agreeable on that song. Owen was piping nicely as well.

We have 2 songs in current rotation on 104.5 (philly's biggest and most awesome alternative rock station) head over to www.radio1045fm.com and tell them to play "Don't Fail Me" or Giant Magnets.

Otherwise, I've been reading the book "Prince of the Marshes" by Rory Stewart. Very awesome so far. He is such a strong writer.
The Olympics have also been taking up my days as I am currently watching team USA mash team Espana. I also saw the gymnastics where Alicia Sacrimone shit the bed. Although Natasia Liukin (sp?) is crushing.

If you haven't yet watched Generation Kill on HBO- it is one of the best mini series ever. I think the guy who wrote The Wire (also on HBO) wrote this too. You need to check it out.

I hope you are all gearing up for the FREE show with Candlebox and Carolina Liar on August 30th. It is gonna be wild.

send us a message!

a few things i can't grip

1) why people believe Dinosaurs, did in fact, exist?

2) these "dinos" were killed by a huge meteor that came 64 BILLION years ago...and meteors have forgot to come since then.

3) ps. bunny rabbits lived, while huge powerful dinos died. ALL OF THEM.

4) Vera Bradley-these handbags are all the rage amongst teens and old ladies...how they became fashionable....beyond my comprehension.

5) going with the same theme...Dave Matthew Band (although I never really got into them, I appreciate the talent) but again, how did they with their Adult Contemporary music become huge with teens and old farts alike.

6) why Disney-music capitivates this new generation of Americans...embarassing...

....discuss amongst yourselves