Sugarcult

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Member Since: 9/7/2005
Band Website: sugarcult.com
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Tim

Vocals/Guitar Marko

Guitar
Airin

Bass/Vocals Kenny

Drums

Discography:

Sugarcult
Lights Out
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Sugarcult
Back to the Disaster
2 Hour DVD & Live CD
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Sugarcult
Palm Trees and Power Lines
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Sugarcult
Start Static
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Street Team & Store:

Road Notes & News:WORDS FROM TIM (4/20/08)

So much news to report. I practically don't know where to begin. Shit, this is gonna spew out and reveal my adult a.d.d. Lets start with tv's "Rock Of Love 2". Who saw that coming right?! After watching season one religiously, I had my doubts when rumors of season 2 were announced. I didn't really think the girls were as good as the first season, but then I started getting really into it. By the end of the season, I was glued to the TV. Like most of you, I was really shocked that he didn't pick Daisy. So Daisy if you're real and out there in web-land and read this, Sugarcult will give you a free t-shirt and entrance to any one of our five locations in the tri-county area for an evening of non-Poison inspired music. I was rooting for you all along!

By the way, I should let you know that this email is being carefully crafted in a dubious La Quinta Inn (Tampa, Florida). We played today at the University of South Florida. The highlight of the day besides playing was that we all scored free Croc's sandals. That's right, they aren't your moms gardening shoes anymore. As I told the crowd earlier, I think I'm gonna make them the "scene" single-handedly. At next years Warped Tour, screaming dudes with long bangs, tight jeans and beards will all be wearing Crocs, because of the dogmaster "me".

Ok, lets talk about our journey to Cleveland next week. Apparently Marko has some big display at the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, where one of his old guitars and stage clothes are hanging, for the Warped Tour exhibit. So we're all gonna take a field trip down there and take a peak at his shrine before our show (sidenote - why does Marko get a shrine and I don't? jealous, yes)

Also, on Thursday May 1st we headline the Canyon Club in Agoura Hills, CA. Three other bands are also playing. Please come early. I want you to check out one of my new favorite bands, Them Terribles. They will be tearing through a 60's inspired set just before us.

I'm really late on the current movies so this is a brand new old movie review. Who here besides me was a little disappointed when they saw "No Country for Old Men"? Not really that great. Ok ok, it looked amazing, but common. That ending was pretty bad. No music either. Although, I have to admit, it had a lot of potential. If I had my hands on the script, I would've brought in Nick Cage, had a Bon Jovi theme song ala "I'm a cowboy" and a few more atv/ all terrain vehicles doing burn outs. Now were talking a block buster the kids could enjoy. I rented it and I still want my two hours back. "The Darjeeling Limited" however was amazing.

New music tip/plug. A good friend of mine, Ryan Gillmor, wrote a song called "In this Moment" that you should check out. It may be used by American Idol as the big season finale song, so hear it first with his voice on it before it is too late http://songwriter.americanidol.com.

Why do I ruin hotel rooms? I am looking around the room right now and there is a reason no one else in the band wants to room with me. Is it odd that I crank the AC 24/7? I like to be cold. Shower etiquette: when I am in a hotel room I shower like 3 sometimes 4 times a day. Towels run short. Cleanliness......Isn't the fun of a hotel room that someone is going to clean up after you? Every morning you leave and this silent mommy comes in and organizes everything. The only difference is she doesn't yell at you at the end of the day for leaving the wet towel on the bed or urinating in the sink.

That's it for now. If I think of anything else I'll let you know. Tim

WORDS FROM TIM / FLYING HOME FROM AUSTRALIA (3/5/08):

Thank god for lighted keyboards on these macintosh laptops. So here we are at 30,000 feet in the dark recapping a week of rock-n-roll in Oz. I have my neck pillow which is shaped like a vagina propping my computer up so I can reach the keys, while the person in front of me is leaned back into my lap. Airline seating is insane. It only works if you weigh 140 lbs. I'm really jelous of the singer in Madina Lake right now. He's a few rows ahead of me and perfectly relaxed, swimming in a spacious economy seat while my fat ass has to take shallow breaths for the next 13 hours. I think I should've worn sweats instead of stretch jeans.

Today started with a lobby call at 3:45 AM in Perth. This meant flying to Sydney to transfer airlines with the ultimate destination of Los Angeles the following day. This is one area of "time travel" that's very confusing (THE TIME VORTEX). How can I leave on a Tuesday, travel 28 hours and land on a Tuesday. Am I high?? Does that seem extremely bizzare to anyone else..... This scares me, I don't believe in elves or wizards or the 4th dimension, but you gotta admit that's absurd. The first thing that comes to mind is of course "Back to The Future" where Marty McFly visits himself in the future. So.....what's the Monday version of me doing?? Is he going around tainting the very name I've spent years building? Is he going to make it to my show yesterday in Perth?? Is he gonna be a jackass and address a couple thousand fans in the crowd as cute little Kangaroos and make them jump like Wallabies in the breakdown of "What you Say"?? The answer is hell yes!! The thought of dealing with two Tims is almost as frightening as two Marko's. I don't know if there is enough mirrors in the world to handle it. Cue up music to "THE TWILIGHT ZONE" nea-ner-nea-ner-nea........

So...Australia has been good to us. A little tooo good to us. Your sausage pastry rolls, vegamite spreads, Victoria Bitter Beer, Shiraz Wines, beautifull shorelines, polite taxis and expensive hotel internet is going to be deeply missed. I already have my snorkel and flippers ready to make the swim back! On a serious note it was really really great. Thank you for coming to see us play at the festivals and side shows with Motion City Soundtrack. It was great meeting many of you in person at the tent signings and hearing your stories about how you have followed our band all these years only to be ignored until this month. You made it possible for us to come!! This tour was an experience with a lasting impact, much more than what normally comes out of just playing shows for us. Ohhh and a big big Thank You for the massive collection of stuffed Koala bears we recieved as presents during our stay. When I get home I'm going to spray paint my cat grey so I feel like I am surrounded by australian nature.
Tim and the boys!

WORDS FROM MARKO (2/6/08)
Sugarcult Blog 2/6/08

Dearest Rock n Roll Party Members, Repeat after me...happy sweet SIXTEEN FUCKING MILLION!!! As of today (Weds 2/6/08); the "total plays" on our Myspace page music player hit 16,000,000, a fact brought to my attention by one of our biggest fans who lives across the pond, not far from The Beatles' hometown of Liverpool, England (thanx Barry!) I know it's bad manners to boast, so please forgive our collective self-high-five, but knowing that our music is getting out there and that it means something to you're lives is the highest compliment we can receive as music-makers. While we can't stick it in some trophy case, it beats the hell out of a fucking Grammy any day. It's so easy to get lost in the supermarket of the music business; so many T-shirt designs to approve, phone calls to follow up on, interviews to do, travel logistics to untangle, blogs to post (sic), etc... but trust me, above all, it truly is ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC. So, uh... THANKS!

Oh yeah, to help celebrate (and clear up some space in our practice room!), we're blowing out all of our merch ridiculously cheap ($5 t-shirts, $15 hoodies, etc); this sale will go from Feb 10 until every thing is gone OR March 10; whichever comes first. So click on the Super Sale link on our myspace page and get a head start on NEXT year's holiday shopping or better yet, replace that faded old shirt from way back in 2002; here's to hoping you can still fit in the same size you wore back then!

Two weeks from today we fly down to Australia; it's a crazy time-travel scenario where we get on the plane, fly for like 18 hours and arrive 2 days later! I guess I'll finally have time to finish that Slash autobiography (I really gotta stop reading all these rock-books and pick up a proper novel!) But I digress... If you look on the SoundWave Festival site www.soundwavefestival.com you'll notice that tons of good bands are playing with us. I think I'm doing a guest DJ set in Melbourne at an after party over there too; so Aussie fans: stay tuned for further notice; drinks are on me! Sound Wave is gonna be a good time we're especially excited to catch up with our former tour mates and partners in crime such as Motion City Soundtrack, The Matches, Plain White Tees, From Autumn To Ashes, All Time Low, The Starting Line, Halifax, and Mae; all of which are hopefully honoring the "code of the road" and not telling everyone out there how we look without our Kiss makeup on...'cause remember boys we got dirt on all you sexy bastards too! Hmm, let's see; ever wonder what Justin from Motion City looks like with his glasses off and his hair down??? How about how "Hey There Delilah" used to be called "Hey There Pagnotta"... the lecherous list of mayhem goes on!

When we return, it's back to writing new smashes, trashes and hits for album 4. I also have a couple of excursions planned with my latest side-project The Playing Favorites (www.myspace.com/theplayingfavorites); first we do some shows in Austin, TX for the SXSW festival then the fav's record comes out in Japan (April 2) so we're going there to play some shows. Come say hi if you're in the area and if not... join up and be our pals on the information superhighway!

Until next time, keep coming back for your daily dose of our sonic medication and remember, you're our record company now so... TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS. Sixteen Million X's and O's, Marko & the Sugarcult Gangstas

WORDS FROM MARKO (1/10/08)
1st Sugarcult blog of 2008!!!: Dearest screamers and shouters, Marko here from the 'cult, amped up on coffee (thanks Jennie!) and checkin' in to make sure this brand spankin' new year is off to a good start for you all. Personally, I have a really good feeling about 2008; and it's not just 'cause we will FINALLY get some fresh blood in the White House and tell the world that we are Americans instead of I-don't-care-icans. I kind of dig all this hype about change coupled with all that residual New Year's resolution propaganda; it's as good of an excuse as any to step up and make things happen. Change is a good thing; when things stay the same they become stagnant and usually fucking boring, right? Miniature revolutions are good; you cut or dye your hair or get a new pair of shoes and step back out into your world with a fresh sense of renewal; you decide to lose weight be it physically (Kenny's got a brilliant plan for you: do more/eat less!) or mentally (c'mon party people let go of all that built up early-21st century baggage!); or maybe just making a decision to get involved and support something you believe in, maybe even taking a chance or two. I could go on and on.As far as Sugarcult is concerned, we are moving into 2008 with exciting new frontiers: we are thrilled to be going to Australia for the first time in our 7 year touring history (it's about time!) Some of our favorite things come from Australia: Australian girls, The Living End, AC/DC, INXS, Shiraz wines, Fosters beer, "I Wanna Get Free" by the Vines, and you gotta admit Koala bears are pretty fucking adorable, right?! Friends in other bands are always saying how awesome it is down under, we can't wait to see for ourselves; we promise to return with tons of stories and annoy you all with our bad attempts at cleverly using Aussie slang with fake-accents for months to come!As for our NEXT record: we are going to make a new record sometime this year. We are writing new songs that I hope will blow your minds! Some of you have been writing us wondering about our most recent label V2 Records (that released our last record, "Lights Out"). Allow me to set the record straight: the short story is that the company that owned V2 decided to shut the label down for good. "Lights Out" is still in print and available to buy in stores, but basically has no promotion behind it due to there being no label. Hopefully the music speaks for itself (for all three of our albums), and we thank you all for helping us spread the word on the street, where it counts the most! The blessing in disguise here is that we are no longer "owned" by anyone. So we move head on, as free agents into this exciting new era of music/media revolution. Embrace the change and know with confidence that you can always count on us to bring it on Sugarcult style! See you on the road...massive love, Marko & Le Cult du SucrePS. Thanks again to all of you that came out to our sold-out holiday show at the House of Blues Anaheim; in addition to being a super fun crowd to play for; you should all pat yourselves on your backs for bringing ridiculously huge amounts of toys for our Toys for Tots drive and making lots of underprivileged kids smile!

WORDS FROM TIM - May 30, 2007
Hello 'yall, buddies, homies, thugs, money makers, smackdowns, biggies and shakers!! This is my long overdue blog. I know blogs are probably fun to read. A window into the mind or daily life of persons of interest. Although my life is no different than anyone else's, and how do I not sound like a kiss ass pimping shit for sale? Is there such a thing as blog anxiety? Or bloggers block? If so, I may fit somewhere in this category. The anxiety starts with......what do I write about???? I'm no more of a tortured artist than my mail lady. In fact she looks more rock-n-roll than me! She has crazier hair and talks with a certain type of stutter that would suggest a drug filled-past with memories of Haight Street in San Francisco high on mushrooms.

So here we go, line one..... It's been exactly 2 weeks and one day since we've been home from tour. We lapped the country in our big brown bus known as (Tootsie Poop) playing colleges and clubs with Talib Kwelli and William Tell. It was a bit gratifying to pull up to all the campuses that rejected my admissions application years back when I was a young buckaroo fast-tracking my life to be the next Donald Trump. This of course was before I discovered marijuana, girls and Fender Stratocaster guitars. At any rate, we played the shows with the kind of respect that would warrant a Masters degree in sing alongs, crowd surfs, and unanimous "Fuck School" chants from our legions of highly attractive, adoring fans. At this point in my life, I feel like I could bypass being a student and go straight for a faculty position. Write to your local State College or University and elect me as the Dean of Discipline! My schedule is free enough that I could do it from the road via cell phone.

Did anyone notice that we went out on this tour with a new motley crew of employees? Ladies and gentleman, give it up for our new sexy guitar technician DEVO. He likes long beachwalks, wet kisses and chicks that give him the freedom to do what he loves most, scrapbooking. Next on the list, our youngest addition to the Sugarcult family, Merch Man BRADY!!!!! Measuring in at 5'8 145 lbs. This smooth, tan, delicious man loves girls that aren't afraid to say what's really on their mind. He also thinks it's hot when I put lip gloss on slowly (the jury is still out). Up next, the one, the only, tour manager, (HEADS UP) Steve!!!!!! Steve joined the tour with long hair and quickly swapped it out for a more abercrombie messy-chop once he discovered our fans are attractive. Steve enjoys sober nights in his bunk with the curtain closed and a handful of warm lotion nearby. The last person on our list really needs no introduction. If you've had the honor of seeing him in person you are very lucky. He's usually gone before any of you are at the venue. All the way from "Kick Your Ass Texas" our bus driver Doyle. He loves long brisk runs, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Dragons. All of these wild Sugarcult gangbangers can be seen at any of our shows.

Speaking of....We have a few shows coming up. We are playing in our hometown of Santa Barbara, CA, next Thursday, June 7th at UCSB so if you are around come check it out and buy a pair of pink underwear. Also, I am playing a free solo acoustic show at the Knitting Factory in LA on June 11th for a Skate for Cancer benefit. This set will be short probably 5-7 songs. On June 21st I am playing a longer set, again solo acoustic, with Chuck Ragan from Hot Water Music at The Alley in Fullerton, CA. We will be trading off singing our own songs back and forth till the sun comes up. That night should be really cool. And Sugarcult is headlining a festival show in the Bay Area August 25 (More info at www.myspace.com/vineyardfest)

I hope this fulfills my blogging obligation for the next two weeks. If you have love advice or questions to ask feel free to drop me a line at myspace.com/timpagnotta Later skaters, Tim

WORDS FROM TIM - VIRGIN MEGA TOUR. BLOG 1, April 20, 2007
Dear Friends, Fans, and my cat Marvin... It has been only a week and a half into our six week journey. A journey that will take us from our comfortable California beds and into your hearts and tortured souls. The tour is a combination of playing Virgin College Mega Tour shows (mostly on campuses), and our own headline shows (at clubs). It's pretty late right now. We just finished playing at the lovely University of Maryland and now we are en-route to the "golden state" of Massachusetts known for it's exotic beaches, fish chowda, and Aerosmith. If you come early to the shows you may see us in the batting cages in the "Virgin Village". The Virgin Village is a tent area that is set up everyday on campuses with a batting cage, pitching booth, video games and our very own dodge ball pin. Everyday we go down and throw our backs out trying to impress the local college team with our athleticism. Marko made great strides today hitting 5 out of the 20 pitches in the batting cage. In Utah I threw a fastball clocked at 65 mph. That's 6 miles an hour faster than the girl before me. It wasn't totally fair though........she had chesthair.Already we have played Las Vegas, Tucson, Las Cruces and done our own headlining shows, with the ever-sexy William Tell opening, in St. George, Flagstaff and Dallas. A lot of people ask us everyday about the Virgin Mega Tour lineup because it's not your typical everyday bill (hip hop/rock/pop). Hip hop artist Talib Kwali headlines, we play in the middle and William Tell opens. When we were out with The Pink Spiders, Damone, and Meg and Dia we were putting our heads together about what our next tour should be like. The lovely people at Virgin were putting this college tour together and we decided we wanted to do something different than we have ever done in the past. There are pro's and con's with every tour. Some of the things out of our control have been some of the ticket prices (which have nothing to do with us). We like to keep our prices down for our poor bastard fans that struggle to pay credit card bills and eat by looking under their seat for loose change. The pro's are obviously the diversity of the bands everyday, all the cool people and the beautiful stage and sound system we get to play on every night. If you make it out to the shows be prepared to see beautiful lights and a thumping sound system, and all the extra activities the tour village offers. We've been playing a few more new songs off 'Lights Out' as well. Which by the way (shameless plug insert here), be sure to check out our new album 'Lights Out'. It will cure the rash you picked up at that "other bands" show you went to last night. It will also make you speak in tongues and dance like a freak!Be sure to check the tour dates page at Sugarcult.com to see all the show dates. There you will find all the scoop on the College shows and our headline shows. Come out and hang with us!! Tim

JAPAN BLOG ..3, OSAKA - WORDS FROM MARKO.

Jan. 24, 2007 Osaka, Japan:

Typed on a bullet train from Osaka to Tokyo...

The show in Osaka was off the hook!; over 500 fans packed into the close quarters of the infamous Club Quattro. We've played Osaka many times, but hadn't been in that venue since our first tour of Japan in 2003. The graffitti-covered dressing room walls, unfold a timeline of the last 10 or 15 years of rock history; you see tags by every band that ever made their way up the ladder of success. I even saw one on the ceiling by my friends' bands that toured together back in '97; Summercamp and Ridel High; two long lost, but totally amazing bands (you can probably find their CDs super cheap on Amazon or eBay right now!)

Before the show, we scattered around the adjacent shopping district called American Village for awhile and then all got together to hit our favorite ramen noodle joint; we've eaten there countless times and none of us can begin to tell you what it's called. You kind of get around by instinct and feel in Japan; there aren't really proper street names (not that we'd be able to read them anyway), or conveniently laid out grid systems, instead the uniquely designed tall buildings serve as unofficial landmarks to help one navigate.

After the show we did a meet and greet type thing with the fans; then checked-in to the Swissotel Hotel near the train station, and at about 11:15pm headed out for dinner! Tonight's eating adventure consisted of Korean Barbeque where you sit at tables with circular grills built into the middle, and they bring various raw food for you to cook yourself; it's really good, but I kept getting distracted with conversations and therefore burned a lot of the food! We did our obligatory/traditional stop by our favorite Osaka hang out, the Rock Rock Music Bar (their walls are covered with signed polaroid photos of every band you can imagine; as this bar is a big destination on many a rock n roll pilgrimage). We said hi to Yoko, Seiji, Nobu and the gang at Rock Rock; tons of fans from the show were there as well so it was fun to interact and chill with the locals for awhile. Tim and I left early at like 3:30am, I think Airin might still be there playing darts!

talk soon,

Marko and the jet-laggers

WORDS FROM JAPAN / BLOG ..2 - from Marko.

Jan. 24: Hiroshima, Japan

Typed on a bullet train to Osaka with Kenny next to me, Airin and our Japanese assistant Aska are passed out on either side of me; Tim is in the seat in front of me video taping and talking to our guitar tech Larry.

So yesterday was our debut in Hiroshima, a city most of us in the Western world equate with the first ever deployment of a nuclear bomb. As soon as sound check was over we all unanimously agreed that we needed to go to the Peace Memorial Museum. For the small cost of about 35 cents, we got to experience their informative but intense permanent exhibit dedicated to educating people about the events leading up to that horrid event that took place 600 meters in the sky directly over Hiroshima's city center at 8:15am on August 6, 1945, and it's aftermath.

In my hazy memories of studying or more like, glossing over history in high school, I realized that I always took it for granted the "we" bombed this city in particular; at the museum I was appalled to learn that the city was chosen not necessarily for military tactical purposes, but more due to the fact that it had a lack of prisoner of war camps and had not been bombed by any fighter jets yet, therefore being a fresh canvas on which to measure the effects of devastation this unprecedented method of warfare would cause. This makes the already frustrating notion of war and violence, even harder to accept, knowing that the majority of those that died and/or were affected by this attack were just ordinary civilians going about their daily lives.

There were displayed copies of letters of opposition to using this bomb without warning the citizens, that were ignored. There was an entire wall with copies of protest letters written by all of Hiroshima's mayors from the decades since the war pleading with any country that continues testing and developing nuclear arms to stop; in hopes that a tragedy of this magnitude never happens again. All of these letters ignored. There was an actual size full-scale model of the bomb dropped that caused and entire city to be reduce to rubble and instantly or indirectly killed close to 200,000 people (nearly half of it's population); I could fit this bomb in the back of my car with the seats down. The scary thing is, that bomb seems almost quaint, when compared to the technology today; we have the capacity to do thousands of times more damage; and believe me, after witnessing before and after photos of this fairly big city; you don't even want to imagine what that means. It would be one thing if this incident was nestled comfortably in the ancient past, so we could say "oh, yeah but those were barbaric times before we were civilized"; but this happened only 62 years ago; most of our parents or grandparents were alive when this happened.

We all left the exhibit feeling a loss for words and dealing with it in our own ways. It may have weakened our spirits for a time, but I think our resolve to work towards a world without violent death and destruction was strengthened. That night's show felt like it mattered. We got to use our band as more than just entertainment, but as an ambassador of hope, healing and moving on. Later that night we ate traditional Hiroshima grilled oysters and these things that approximate Japanese style pizza called, Okonomiyaki, prepared in front of us by a chef who gave us souvenir t-shirts and even autographed Airin's at his request!

peace,

Marko and the 'cult

WORDS FROM MARKO....

Jan. 22-23, 2007: Nagoya, Japan

Typed in room ..1018 at the Creston Hotel in Nagoya and on a high-speed bullet train en route to Hiroshima.

I've lost count of the amount times we've flown to Japan since the first time we went there way back in 2003; it really has become Sugarcult's home away from home; a place that once seemed so far away both geographically and culturally is now strangely familiar to us... so now the 'Lights Out Tour' adventure breaks out into this new year with our first proper tour of Japan on this album.

We got in the first night after a 12 hour flight; showered off the airplane funk, then went out and washed down infamous Nagoya chicken wings (Tebasaki) with cold crisp Asahi beer, afterwards I hit the convenience store (Lawson) bought strawberry Kit Kats (they have all kinds of different flavors of Kit Kats here; cherry, apple, melon, green tea, lemon cheesecake, blood orange, etc). Then we returned to hotel, and passed out.

The next day, Tim and I went on long excursion and found Nagoya Castle, the Robot Museum, Central Park with replicas of stars from Hollywood Blvd and hand prints from Chinese Theater; we saw something that said Nagoya is the sister city of Los Angeles, which sort of explained this. We found Airin looking at a shoe store (they have different varieties and color combos of shoes like Converse, things you've never dreamed up), then we all went and checked out the Robot place which had an adjacent store that sold all kinds of crazy toys, gadgets, and futuristic stuff. I stayed and checked out the museum's show room of robot technology and then went upstairs to take in the exhibit on the history of robots dating back to ancient culture, through the 19th century vision of "steam people" like a steam engine, to the 1920's sci-fi movie Metropolis, onward through the 50's, 60's, 70's (C3P0 and R2D2 were like the the De Niro and Pacino of robot culture) up to the present, there was this baby harp-seal robot that is used in therapy for people suffering high levels of stress; you pet it and it looks at you and reacts like a kitten or a lovable pet dog; it's weird to feel an emotional connection with a machine... I was kinda freaked out to learn that android technology is way more far along than I'd thought; today a harp seal, tomorrow a hot girl...hmm, don't even go there!

Then Tim and I went to Nagoya's Zip FM radio station and did a half-hour on-air feature where they played our music and interviewed us while kids outside could watch us through the window. We requested that they play the old 80's classic by the Vapors, "I Think I'm Turning Japanese"; I think we need to learn that and cover it next time we come here.

The first show was great; there was a sense of bottled up energy pouring out in the crowd as we haven't played Nagoya in almost 2 years (the last time was when we opened for Green Day on the American Idiot Japan tour in March '05); the opening band on our tour is a Japanese punk band called Link; we haven't gotten drunk with them yet so I can't tell you what they are like as dudes, but I'm listening to their CD as I type this and I can tell you that they play loud, fast and catchy; some songs in English, but my fav's are the ones sung in Japanese; for all I know they could be singing about mowing a lawn, but it still sounds cool! Check them out www.link-rocks.com I know they have at least one record available in the States through Billie Joe/Green Day's label Adeline (www.adelinerecords.net).

After the show we went to a late dinner and had Taiwanese food which was awesome! Now onward to Hiroshima, it will be our first time ever playing there; we've been warned that the Atomic Bomb Museum is a really emotionally challenging experience for Americans, and that it might lower our spirits for our show; but we want to check it out; I think it's important that we face these things in hopes of learning from our mistakes; some history doesn't need repeating.

Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto,

Marko and the rest of the band WORDS FROM TIM, 1/4

DEAR CLOSE FRIENDS AND WEIRD FAMILY MEMBERS,

So the first week of the New Year is almost over...I feel the stretch marks of my fat stomach starting to shrink back to normal after of a month of overeating gigantic proportions of glazed cookies, glazed turkeys, glazed frisbees, and of course glaze on glaze. Santa made his usual appearance this year and once again told me that despite my overuse of profanity, I am marginally a decent human being and was granted my wish of the annual cheese log and fruit cake. Stoker!!!!

If you live in the San Diego area you may have caught me on Channel 7 News on Christmas Eve for crashing into a two-story house in a hot air balloon!!! That's right, true story. It really was me......Just when crashing bar-chords wasn't enough fun for the family I sometimes surprise people by occasionally crashing into homes in a 100 foot hot air balloon. The hot air balloon went a little haywire during a routine landing and accidentally smashed into the back of someone's house. No one was hurt except for the pride of our lovely balloon operator. All in all it was pretty awesome!!!

Fast forward to this month, the countdown is 18 days!!....We will soon jet set across the Pacific Ocean to visit Japan or as they say "Na-Pon". We are playing five fun-filled shows to thousands of anxious, enthusiastic friends of ours that haven't heard this years rehearsed stage banter and unscripted in-between song jazz odyssey's. Japan here we come!

Plans for the next Sugarcult Grizwald European & United Kingdom Vacation are in the works. We are dying to get over there to eat barrels of haggis and blood puddin'. Friends, you should sleep easy at night knowing that good ole' Tim-dawg didn't waste his only New Year's Resolution opportunity on something selfish and vane, like chiseled abs or a better car or cooler friends. No, certainly not!!! My wish is to head over to my home away from home, the United Kingdom!!! More to come... Now a word from our sponsors. Tim-and Sugarcult

SUGARCULT ON TV THIS SATURDAY:
This Saturday, January 6, Sugarcult will perform their song "Los Angeles" on Fearless Music TV. Fearless Music TV is on Saturday nights at 1am est on Fox 5 in NYC. For those not in NYC, check out the time and channel listing at www.fearlessmusic.tv/channels.html to find out when and where else the show airs.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL...!!

Words from Tim, 12/19

The holiday season has snuck up on all of us fast....really fast. It seems like it was only yesterday that I was eating a turkey dinner along side of the Pink Spiders, Damone, and Meg & Dia in a backstage area of the House of Blues in Atlantic City. I've never spent a Thanksgiving loosing three hundred dollars at a blackjack table with Van Halen blasting through the casino speakers before, but it was fantastic!!!. Marko, as my witness and personal cheerleader thought it was triumphant, glorious, and self-fulfilling. It was the Thanksgiving dinner I've never had, but always dreamed about.

So now it's x-mas season and every soccer mom in Los Angeles is driving around like Madmax with a tazer gun under the mini van seat looking for discounts on stocking stuffers and a parking space. The other day I went to a mall to see it for myself . It was out of control! I had two parking spots snaked right from under my eyes and was pushed aside at Hot Dog on a Stick for not being fast enough ordering lemonade. X-mas shopping is a rough, violent, competitive jungle. Malls are filled with glazed-eyed people shopping for things they don't know they wanna buy, for people they don't wanna be shopping for. All of us are affected in some way by these mega-mall beasts...

Everytime I enter the dark retail kingdom my mind goes blank. I walk around for a while gathering ideas but usually talk myself out of purchases in fear that they will end up as returns . That's when I usually end up at Brookstone. Did you ever notice Brookstone lets just about anyone sit in those chairs that give you the free massages? It's really annoying cause I've never actually rode one. I swear anytime I'm near a Brookstone there's some fat ass hogging the five thousand dollar chair getiing the ride of a lifetime. You'd think the dude's masterbating in the seat when no one's looking. It doesn't matter where I am at. It's even at airports now where they have the mini Brookstones. It's that same guy riding the same chair. Or worse yet his whole family riding all three available chairs. If anyone that works at a Brookstone is reading this send me the purchase form. I'll buy one, hell I'll buy two....fuck it I'll buy a thousand of them for all our fans coming to our upcoming x-mas show at the House of Blues in Aneheim, Califonria on the 21'st. of December.

I've said it once and I'll say it again. I'm this years Oprah. If you are coming to the show not only will we have free chairs but also big free gift bags filled with goodies for those that bring a new unwrapped toy to our merch booth for Toys For Tots.

In keeping with the holiday spirit you may have noticed a new song on our music player. Yes that's right an ode to Saint Nick. That is us performing 'Santa Claus Is Coming To Town'. We recorded the song awhile back and just recently put it on a cd compilation with a bunch of other bands. For more info visit www.myspace.com/asantacause I hope you enjoy our holiday tune. That's it for now. Marko is going to write a recap next week about our great tour that a bunch of you came out too. See you all on Thursday at the House of Blues X-mass party. Happy Holidays to everyone!!...

Tim Words from Marko, Road Report 11/28

Bus call 3am; Now rolling away from the Blue Hotel in Albuquerque en route to Tuscon, after a day off that featured; wash and dry cycles, showers, the post office, Bob Dylan's "No Direction Home" DVD, Brazilian food, and somehow... a concert by British singer/soundmaker Imogen Heap (formerly of Frou Frou) and her beatboxer opening act Kid Beyond, which was pretty fucking otherworldly. Oh and thanks to Meg & Dia guitar-dude Chase for bringing us a box full of fancy chocolates from his mom's candy store in Oklahoma. The show there the other night was cool; the venue Cain's is legendary as an old stomping ground for country artists back in the 40's-50's, also as one of the 12 places in America that the Sex Pistols actually played a show during their tumultuous US tour back in 1978. In fact they still have the section of the old dressing room wall that Sid Vicious punched a huge hole in; unfortunately I didn't get to see the couch that Hank Williams passed out .. he could do his 2nd set or whatever. Thanks to all of you die hards who waited patiently for us to return to Tulsa... 3 YEARS!!!! I was especially thrilled to see unsung legend of punk rock Stephen Egerton (guitarist of The Decendents * and All) show up in the crowd; we got to know him a few years back when he was working with our pals MxPx; he's such a nice guy, full of great stories; he brought me and Tim over to his new recording studio he runs in Tulsa and Tim was in gear/tech-talk geek heaven! If you happen to be a interested in that sort of thing, you should get in touch with Tim, he'll talk for miles about that stuff, ever check out www.gearsluts.com? Me neither! Later we all stood out in the cold next to our bus and rolled dice for money as the Pink Spiders blasted Three 6 Mafia hip hop jams outta their van's stereo and we all tried not to think about the inevitability of this fun tour coming to an end all too soon. We'll be posting a bunch of new tour journal photos here (and on sugarcult.com) soon, so keep checking. Catch you on the rebound...

hell yeah,

Marko and...oh fuck it, Sugarcult!

*Homework assignment: http://www.descendentsonline.com/about/WORDS FROM MARKO, 11/25

The home stretch guys and dolls...the home stretch! Greetings from the back lounge of our fast and furious Prevost XLII tour bus. Our driver Doyle has the pedal to the metal and is headin' for California! Sad but true, the US tour is almost over, we'll soon bid sweet adieu to the Pink Spiders, Damone, and Meg & Dia; we'll all promise to keep in touch, although none of us will send x-mas cards, we'll all be forever united by memories of good times spent together as vagabond rock n roll gypsies screamin' n shoutin' love-songs through the loudspeakers of America (and Canada!) And you, our unruly congregation on the dance floor, we won't soon forget you either... we hope we got to meet you after the show, and we apologize if we smelled like sweaty stage clothes... or if we made any spelling errors on our autographs. Rock n roll communion; happiness including others. On that note, we had a blast returning to play in St. Louis at Mississippi Nights, which is dangerously close to a riverboat casino; I think our lighting director Brian has lost more gambling than he has earned in pay on this tour! Thanks to all you St. Lunatics for showing up. The other night was in Cleveland, OH; it had to have been our 10th time playing at Bogarts; Tim and Larry did their laundry at Sudsy Malone's the infamous dive-bar/laundromat, where I went after the show and watched a bad heavy metal band alongside Meg from Meg & Dia, until we were both adequately horrified and decided to join the others shooting pool; earlier, Airin and I had Gold Star Chili "Coneys" (basically a hot dog smothered in onions, finely grated American cheese, and kinda nasty chili for dinner, then Tim went on a mission and brought everyone on the bus Coneys from the much better Camp Washington Chili later in the night, which were devoured in no time.. and that's after we had already snacked on Krispy Kremes and Bon Bons that Michelle brought back for us earlier! It's beyond me how we manage to keep our girlish figures...

Tomorrow we will roll out of our bunks in Tulsa, Oklahoma (question: are locals there called Okla-homies? or just Okies?) and play what will be our 1st show there, well, not counting that time we played an event called Edgefest with Saliva and Bowling for Soup and a bunch of random bands; how can I forget the fond memory of BFS storming our stage during "Bouncing Off the Walls" stark naked, I had the great fortune of being singled out by their...ahem, somewhat overweight guitarist Chris who dirty danced on me during the whole guitar solo! But I digress, so yeah come on out... and don't make me spread the rumor that the All American Rejects are gonna show up, ladies!

Next up it's Tuscon, AZ and then we hit home for our Sunset Strip show House of Blues Hollywood show; it's been a while since we played a proper Los Angeles show, so it should go off! Make sure you get your tickets soon, we wanna show these outta-state opening bands that So. Cal crowds still reign supreme! Oh yeah, 2 other things to remember: email/call the San Francisco radio station Live 105fm and request our song "Los Angeles" as often as you can... it really helps!; the other thing is my side-band Bad Astronaut's new album... have you checked it out yet? Go now to www.myspace.com/badastronaut and dig it! Talk soon...

thankyougoodnight,

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