Ludo

Tonganoxie... -MF

2006-06-26T00:44:00.000-07:00

so here in kansas and andrew & ferrell have been pumping out some hot new jams. on a side note whenever you can use the phrase "pumping out hot jams", or "hot new jams", and what have you, i strongly encourage it. so thats going on as well as staying up late and watching horrible & interesting things. for example when you're up until 3, 4, in the morning there's not much on. last night i was roped into a show on the animal planet channel about the dark-side of animals. i.e. chimps (obvious) and dolphins (what? dolphins? who the fuck would think that a dolphin could be an asshole?) yeah, dolphins, not nice! two different shows back to back. anyway the chimps, pretty standard couple of them go on patrol and sometimes see an outsider, gang up on him, like 12 to 1 and take turns stomping, biting, dragging, and ripping his genitals off and his throat out. who didnt see that coming? they are chimps everyone knows they're evil. now dolphins on the other hand? forget it. out of left field. where to begin? well they are one of few species that have sex for recreation and social purposes, the males will dominate and intimidate other male dolphins buy ganging up and... well prison style. you know what i'm sayin'? they will also kill a females calf to get her to want to reproduce again. like she has a young calf and doesnt want to "do it" with any male dolphins and the male dolphins are all "oh, yeah we will just nix the kid and get that sweet spot going again." so i'm watching this and thinking fuck dolphins, they are not nice. anyway pretty interesting. thats all i have for now.
-seacrest out
(marshall)

Omaha... -MF

2006-06-14T21:56:00.000-07:00

so i'm in omaha doing the family thing. nothing terribly exciting. playing a little tennis, working on my serve (watch out pmo). oh i did go to the nudy club the other night. its been a while and it reminded me how much i hate it. overpriced beer + overpriced girls = overpriced fun. but i am a fan of bikini's. sorry. deal with it. well i think thats all i have for now. i wish it was more dramatic but its not. if anything amazing happens i will let you know.
-seacrest out

nashv... nasv... (i won't do it)... NASHVILLE!

2006-06-06T23:59:00.000-07:00

2am in nashville and we're finishing the mix of "come home." it's been fun and tomorrow we head home. both the songs sound great so far - i'm sure we'll do some more mixing on them, but we're pretty happy. "Come Home" is a pretty straight-forward Ludo rocker - it's about being on the road and being away from someone you love when they're going through tough times. "the horror of our love" is something we haven't really done before - a bit of a departure if you will. it's a slower song w/ some pretty intense lyrics and we took a lot of risks with the recording. you kinda have to hear it to get what it's about, but i really think you guys will like it. and PMO's drum part is pretty crazy.

i planned on taking lots of pictures and video this week, but the batteries in my camera died the day we got here. We head home tomorrow, hang at home Thursday ( and most likely play tennis) and then Friday we head to Omaha for a show. Saturday we're in Des Moines, and then... more writing. Looking forward to the Lawrence show - hopefully we'll get to play for a long time and do a few new songs.

by the way - i've been listening to Amsterband's new CD. It's really amazing. they did it w/ the guy that we did Broken Bride with (Jason McEntire) and i REALLY REALLY think it's special. check them out - www.myspace.com/amsterband They're also a great live band - so go see them if you can. talk to you all soon!
-Convy

Ludo Stuff...

2006-05-27T02:53:00.000-07:00

hello all,

I wanted to take some time to blog since i haven't in SOOO long. this goes out to Ludo fans and friends. People i went to college with who are like, "no, what do you REALLY do for a living?" - this blog isn't for you. As you've probably read on the site, myspace, message board, etc. we're not playing a ton of shows this summer because we're really focusing on writing. We're going to be taking time to devote specifically to writing songs, something we haven't done in a long time. We're all very excited about the songs we're writing which will eventually become the next Ludo record. We want to make the best record we've ever made, the best record we're capable of, and hell - the best record ever made period. Why not?

Many of you have probably heard some of the new songs. "Japan It" has been up on Myspace for a while and we've been playing "Scream, Scream, Scream", "Please", and "Topeka" at shows. We've got demos of those already (as well as songs called "Lake Pontchartrain" and "Cherokee Street") and we're going to record two more new songs in Nashville next week - one called "Come Home" and one called "The Horror of Our Love." I'm telling you all this, but there's good news and bad news.

The good news is 1. We're going to be playing a lot of these songs live. (don't worry you're not going to come see a show and hear ONLY new stuff, but we'll probably mix in a few new ones in every night.) 2. The plan is to start putting some of the demos up on myspace, just like we did with "Japan It." So VERY soon (if not already) you'll have a new Ludo song up on Myspace. When it's up be sure to spread the word.

And now the bad news. The next Ludo record will not be released for a long time. I can't say for sure, but it's going to be a while for all sorts of reasons. As many of you know, we've done lots of showcases in the last month and talks with labels are going very well. As soon as we know something you will too, but obviously we've got to get all that in place before we can release a record. Also, like i said, we're writing right now and we've got plenty of songs we still need to write. We want this thing to be amazing and that means taking time. We've grown SO much as a band since we've started and we're anxious to really find out what we can do. The experience of recording Broken Bride made us a better band and so have ALL the shows we've played in the last 2 and half plus years. (In August we'll celebrate 3 years since the 1st Ludo show ever!!!!) We're trying lots of different things (while still being Ludo) and it's all paying off. There is not a doubt in my mind that when that record comes out it will all be worth it. Like is said, i don't know when it will come out, but I can tell you that in won't be in 2006, so hang in there.

All that being the case, we're going to do what we can to keep all of you in the loop. We won't slack on the blogs. We're all committed giving updates on stuff throughout the summer, so keep checking back here. (and if we don't - email me like it's your job - timconvy@ludorock.com) Like i mentioned there will be new demos on myspace every couple of weeks and we're hoping to throw up more videos every now and then (performance and us just being idiots.) We'll be telling you about new songs we're working on, producers we're working with and just how things are going. Oh - as far as the demos - please remember that they're just demos. They're not necessarily finished versions and the songs may or may not end up on a record. They're all works in progress. But please - give us feedback on the stuff that we put up, and the stuff that you hear at shows.

Ok, what else do i have for you? The plan right now is take lots of "writing time" over the summer, but to hit the road again hard in the fall. I know there are lots of places that we haven't played in a while (sorry Tulsa, Lincoln, Manhattan, West Coast, etc...) but we're going to try to make up for it in the fall. In the meantime, keep an eye on the tour page for the shows we're doing this summer. (Some worthwhile road trips!)

That's the story for now. If you've got questions, comments whatever - feel free to hit me / us up on any of these things:

band@ludorock.com
timconvy@ludorock.com
myspace.com/ludorock
myspace.com/timconvy

thank you as always for all of your patience, love and support.

Tim Convy
Ludo

Chuck Berry

2006-01-23T17:01:00.000-08:00

Chuck Berry invented rock 'n roll. Then he went on to be awesome forever and ever... Amen.

We played with Chuck last Wednesday. I played like trash. I couldn't have cared less as soon as he started. HE played like trash (to start) and HE couldn't have cared less. He's 79 and created rock music, he doesn't have to care, but beyond that is the fact that he just kept going and building and building the show till he had the whole place in the palm of his hand. Amazing. Everyone should see him if they get the chance. He's the king.

He also reffered to us as "My children" when we got to meet him and get a picture with him after the show (a rarity we were told). It didn't occur to me until later that night how apt it was.

Hail Hail Rock 'n Roll.

TJF

2005 - the year in review Pt. 1 (movies)

2006-01-05T00:10:00.000-08:00

2005 is over and i've got a lot to say about it. I've been putting off writing this huge blog - but now i think i just need to start doing it, even if it comes in a few installments. I'm going to start w/ movies.

No - these probably aren't the 10 best movies made this year. There's quite a few I haven't seen, and i honestly don't think my taste in movies is that profound. But these are the 10 movies that came out in 2005 that i liked the most. (i'm probably forgetting several) Here we go....

1. Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith - Holy Crap this thing blew my mind. Granted I watched all the Star Wars movies in one weekend right before I saw this one, so i was oh-so-ready but I really thought it delivered in every way possible. I'm by no means a huge Star Wars geek either - but whole story is incredible. This movie brings it all together and does so very well.

2. Batman Begins - I did not have particularly high expectations for this film, so i was very suprised when i liked it as much as i did. It was huge and exciting and dynamic, but at the same time very real, and as dark as a movie about a guy who kicks ass dressed as a bat should be. I'm ready for the sequel.

3. Murderball - It's a documentary about quadriplegics who play full-contact rugby in wheelchairs. It works as a great sports movie, and an action movie but is also quite moving as you learn about a few of the individuals who play the sport and their lives. You definitely learn a lot.

4. Cinderella Man - Great story, great acting, great director. They got me.

5. Wedding Crashers - I had to watch it again 'cause i laughed through half the funny stuff the first time. i thought it was brilliant.

6. Walk the Line - I didn't like it as much as "Ray" but i don't think Johnny Cash's story was as interesting (and i prefer Ray's music too.) Still very well done.

7. Hustle and Flow - Extremely low expectations here, but they got me. Great actors cool story, lots of funny stuff.

8. Sin City - I've never seen a movie like this. I loved it.

9. Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory - Soooo different. awesome

10. Kingdom of Heaven - I don't care if no one else liked this movie. I thought it was awesome.

worst:

King Kong - Oh my God - i thought this was the dumbest thing i've ever seen. There were more dinosaurs being punched in the face than could possibly be neccessary. Dinosaurs being punched in the face by monkeys, dinosaurs being punched in the face people, dinosaurs being punched in the face by other dinosaurs. The whole movie was just so lame. He tried to cram way too much stuff into it - and it was SOOOOO long. People who like this movie are wrong.

War of the Worlds - One day a bunch of horrible shit went down. It really sucked. The End.

Fantastic 4 - Luckily Michael Chiklis was unrecognizable for most of the film, possibly salvaging an otherwise BRILLIANT career.

Kicking and Screaming - made "Bewitched" seem good.

More to come!!!!

i have a mental illness...

2006-01-02T21:50:00.000-08:00

well another week has gone by and i love it more than i did before. the gauntlet 2 might be the best/worst thing ever. i love it. yeah i know its a sick obsession and i dont care, hence the mental illness. i cant wait for it to happen again. wait a second maybe i am slowly revealing something dark and terrible about myself... is this the best thing going in my life right now? the anticipation of another mtv reality show episode? what the fuck is wrong with me? i'm a mess! 22 min of pleasure every 7 days, thats my highlight. dont start feeling bad for me either its my fault. i am a sick sick sick man. now i dont want to come off as too depressing. i have considered making a science of poker, you know getting some books, reading up, studying. yeah that sounds good i will start dedicating my time in-between gauntlet episodes to becoming a master of a game that involves lies, deceit, tricking people out of their money, thats positive right? oh yeah, i almost forgot how much i love watching UFC... umm... let's do a quick recap. things i enjoy: a show based on greed where people back stab and treat each other like shit, gambling, and a blood sport. ludo needs to get back on the road. whelp, happy new year!
-love
marshall

My vacation so far...

2005-12-23T14:12:00.000-08:00

so i had to be at the airport by 5:00 a.m. wednesday morning. i get there, check-in, things are running smooth. i get to the security check-out line and who do i run in to? claudio and travis from coheed & cambria. yeah thats right i said it. so i kinda geek out a little bit, but go ahead and engage them. drop the new cd in their hands, wish each other happy holidays and go our seperate ways. seriously nice guys, especially at 5:30 in the morning. then i have a layover in minneaoplis and decide to get a little breakfast. micky d's that is and no i'm not proud of it. anyway the set up is this: you place the order, then you go and wait for them call out your order and then they give it to you. pretty simple, right? you are mistaken if you said yes. airport mcdonalds only offers like 4 different things so the likelihood of someone ordering the same thing as you is fairly high. so there's this, what i like to refer to as a son of a bitch with a coffee in his hand and the girl comes to the counter and says quite clearly number 1 with a COKE! number 1 with a COKE! so of course the son of a bitch grabs the bag and bolts before i could say hey asshole thats not yours and rectify the situation. i think to myself and say hey i'll just grab his order and move on. again not that simple number 1 with a coffee comes up and again before i can get over there to grab it the girl is gone. now some of you might be reading along thinking geez marshall you are moving kind of slow arent you? i'll give you that. i would not describe myself as lighting quick at this point but i will also mention that i hate people. by that i mean after i placed my order i saw that there was quite the crowd of selfish holiday travelers waiting to recieve their food. i made the choice to stand away from the crowd, not terribly far mind you and not foreseeing the issues i have encountered up to this point either. ok. then another number 1 with a coke comes and i'm like fuck that this ones coming with me. of course theres already some guy there to claim it and i say whoa man thems my mcmuffins, you think you are the only one who ordered a number 1 with a coke? deer in head lights. he had no answer for that mind bending logic. so i took that shit and ate it. in the end if you have a coffee in your hand open your fucking ears and stick to your own order. thanks. moving on, pretty standard the first couple of days, parents, dinner, things of that nature. well last night i go out with my friends to the casino. no gambling just a little drinking and socializing. i'm at the bar getting some drinks and this girl behind me bumps in to me. i introduce myself and she offers to by me a drink. well i'm not one for turning down a free drink, so i'm in. let me take this moment to clarify i have no intentions with this girl sexually. she was what i call a little stashy. you know a case of the hairy lip but whatever. small talk is happening, waiting for the drinks to be made and out of nowhere this guy shoves his way right in between us and starts getting in this girls face. he's basically sitting in my lap and i thought what can i say here? "hey i usually have to pay for lap dances". no i chose "well if you are going to sit in my lap we should at least introduce each other." i dont think he cared for that little quip because shortly there after he turned around and shoved me. it was then i realized this must be her date. instead of explaining to the drunk indian hey i'm not hitting on your girl, i opted to leave the situation and pass on the drink. i think fighting an indian in an indian casino is always a bad choice, especially over shot with a stashy girl. well thats pretty much it for now, we will see what the rest of trip will bring. enjoy your holiday.
-marshall

Too Much Heat

2005-11-23T00:47:00.000-08:00

It was October 1st of this year. A chilly, damp night in Omaha, Nebraska. It was about a half hour until Ludo was to take the stage at The Rock. I needed food and i needed it fast. I rushed out the front door of the club and saw a Dairy Queen sign. Thrilled, i began a brisk walk in its direction with visions of a double cheeseburger and possibly even a Mr. Misty. As i got closer - the unthinkable: DQ was closed. I didn't panic; there was no time for that. I looked all around. No food in sight, just a gas station. I wasn't happy about it, but i knew what i had to do. I walked to the gas station checking the time on my phone. It was getting ugly and i was only getting hungrier. i hit the doors and scoped the place like Magic Johnson would the court at the Garden. There wasn't a lot to work with, but i was starving.
Then i saw it...Hot Pockets. I didn't want to deal with them. They had quite an assortment - cheeseburger, meatball, pepperoni, and more. But since my youth, i've had serious issues w/ microwavable sandwiches or anything in the microwavable sandwich family. Sure when i was young i'd have the occasional microwavable hamburger, or fries or sandwich, but it was always for the novelty of it. I felt it was futuristic. But it always ended the same way and i began to dread a future where all food burnt your mouth on the first bite only to have a completely disgusting frozen solid, last bite. One too many bad experiences w/ grocery store bought White Castle's, and i swore off microwavable meals forever....or least that's what i thought.
But on October 1st, i didn't have much of a choice. I grabbed a meatball pocket, a capri sun (yes, one of the new ones in the bottles - awesome) and a Hershey bar, 'cause i eat those in Omaha now - (another story). So i heat that sucker up and dig in. It was amazing. Every bite. And consistent! It was truly delicious from the first to the last bite. I was delighted - apparently the technology in the field of microwavable food had made some serious advances in just a few short years. As i played the show that night, i was somewhat distracted by this potentially enormous discovery that was sure to have an incredible impact on my life. Those things are pretty close to a full meal, are available at most gas stations throughout the country and only cost $1.99. It didn't take long for everything to sink in.
So needless to say i've been taking advantage of my little discovery and indulging in Hot Pockets pretty often. Which brings us to Saturday night. We just rocked Ames, IA w/ Pomeroy and decided at about 2am we should drive home to St. Louis. We were all starving though, and decided that a gas station stop would be our only stop for food. Needless to say, i was as cool as a microwavable cucumber. We hit that BP hard, and i was delighted to see quite an assortment of HP's. My bandmates were not as relaxed and struggled to find anything worthy of their hunger. I made my pitch on the Hot Pocket's, telling them that i too had been a skeptic, and that i too knew the horrors of frozen centers. Palermo was in. We both went w/ a cheeseburger Pocket and it was off to the microwave. Matt went first and watched hesitantly as his pocket cooked. I placed a reassuring hand on his back and in just 110 seconds that sucker was ready to go. My turn. There were no plates as is often the case in such situations, so we improvised by placing the pocket on a healthy pile of napkins. I turned the dial and went to look for a delicious Capri Sun. No problem - grabbed and headed back to the microwave. Something in that area was burning. There was a hot dog cooker not far from the microwave and i took a closer look, examining it for some sort of malfunction - actually i just smelled it. Then "DING!" my eyes shot to the microwave and - Flames! The entire inside of the microwave was filled w/ fucking flames! I opened her up, determined to save my Hot Pocket (there were no more cheeseburger pockets left!) I was stunned and must have made some sort of noise upon my discovery 'casue the guy behind the counter was eye-ing me pretty hard.
"Uh...."
THe flames disappeared as soon as i opened the microwave door. The pocket looked fine, but the napkins - or what was left of them - were completely charred. I grabbed the pocket and gave it a once over. I blew off some of the ashes, but everything was cool. I grabbed the burnt napkins and threw them away. The bottom, top and sides of the once-white microwave were completely black. It was pretty messed up. The guy started walking over.

"Uh...dude, your microwave caught on fire..."

The guy approached, and though i was nervous, I took bite number one of my Hot Pocket - it was soothing in an otherwise tense moment.

"...I didn't even have anything in there, just my food and some napkins....I ...I don't know why it would...."

He came closer, bent down and looked at the microwave and then at me.

"Too much heat."

He was right. Too much heat.

"Dude, i'm sorry... i"

"I don't care, i'll let the day shift clean it up"

He was right. Fuck the day shift. They can deal w/ this shit. This guy had clearly been held down by the man and the day shift too many times. Guys like he and i, we don't have time for stuff like this. I took another bite - fuckin' day shift.
I contemplated writing and posting a sign reading

"Dear Day Shift,
This thing's all screwed up. Too much heat."

But i heard the Ludo van honk, and surely i'd have to put my nearly-ravaged cheeseburger Hot Pocket down to write such a sign.

-Convy

Be a Cruiser.

2005-11-17T13:37:00.000-08:00

so i had a down couple of days. We weren't playing shows, i was getting sick, and i was just really stressed out. Stupid i know. So i'm sitting around feeling sorry for myself, thinking 'it's going to take a lot to pull me out of this.' ( In fact, the other night i wrote this really, really long blog about bands and life and stuff, but then i deemed it far too depressing to actually post.)
But then a few things lined up to pull me out of all of it. Shortly after i wrote the blog i scoped myspace a bit longer. While cruising myspace is ususally a source of unimaginable depression for me - not unlike watching MTV - this time it was quite the opposite. I checked out Jupiter Sunrise's page and saw that they had posted 2 new songs. I knew i'd like it, i knew they would be great. Man, i listened and it just made me so happy. The songs were beautiful and potent and... i don't know. THey had an effect on me themselves, but also just knowing that band and knowing what they're doing. It's awesome. THey're making the music that Jupiter Sunrise is supposed to be making, which isn't neccessarily what they're supposed to be doing. I know that reads like it doesn't make sense, but i don't know a better way to say it. Either way, i've been listening to the stuff a lot and it's incredible. Check it out.

so then i went to bed feeling a bit better about things and when i wake up i am told that a copy of the new Pomeroy DVD has arrived in the mail. Obviously i don't get dressed. i wrap myself in a blanket and put that shit in! ridiculous. pomeroy is ridiculous. they do whatever they want and they're sick. I got real excited about the whole thing. i watched it all - photo gallery, special features, i loved it. Pomeroy is a force.

I guess the point here is that more than anything lately i really find that i'm inspired by the bands that we're lucky enough to know. And i don't just mean inspired musically. Just in life - the choices these bands make, the risks, the ways they present themselves, everything. It makes me proud to do what i do and know who i know. there's a whole lotta crap out there - i mean a TON - and we're lucky enough to know a few of the good guys (and there are lots more than just pomeroy and JS.)

I'll leave you w/ this. Expect more. Expect more from the music you listen to. Just because a band is "not bad" they aren't "good." Don't settle. Expect good music, demand good music, search for good music if you have to, but do NOT settle. I swear it will be rewarding. Take an active roll in what you like, don't just choose from what is around. And - and this is very important - what a band looks like or acts like should have no effect on whether or not you like their music. Ugly people and assholes still make great music. Expect more.

i know that was supposed to be last, but the final thing that got me out of my slump was watching "Eddie and the Cruisers." One of the greatest and worst (but more greatest) movies I've ever seen. Lotsa good life lessons in there. Apparently there's a sequel - "Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives!" I can't wait. That's all i got.

"If we can't be great, what's the sense in ever playing music again?"
-Eddie Wilson
Eddie and the Cruisers

-Convy

Man...

2005-11-15T23:58:00.000-08:00

I'm almost 22 years old and I still look like I'm a sophomore in high school...

I'll never grow up.

But that'll later turn into a good thing.

That's all.

And yes, believe it or not, I'm fully aware of how young I look.

-Pmo

The Best Hotel in America...

2005-10-09T12:59:00.000-07:00

well ludo was forced to stay in a hotel on the way from carbondale to wheaton. some might say "forced to stay in a hotel?" let me tell you a little bit about this place. we are somewhere in illinois and pull over at a little place called the red carpet inn, turns out its really the red couldnt be crappier inn. so i make the usual hey i give you money, you give me a key type arrangements and head over to the room. open the door matt, tim, tim, and myself walk in to find a curious setting to say the least. tim convy says i dont think this room has been cleaned there is a paper plate with a mountain of cocaine on it, no wait its baking soda and on the complete other side of the room about 2 feet away there is a bowl of vinegar. hmm... weird? well we will just get another room. so i make my way back over to the office and explain the situation and get a key to another room. great! not so much. we walk in to the next room and are hit in the face with a smell that lays somewhere in-between a fish dinner that wasnt finished three weeks ago and a body rotting. now all of a sudden the baking soda and vinegar start to make sense, you see that is the red carpet inns idea of an "aroma enhancing system" or AES if you will. so fuck it back to the original room. we get in there i pull back the cover to get in bed and apparently this room was already occupied by a fat ass cockroach, who had no intentions of leaving. usually in my experience you turn on a light or make a movement and a roach will scatter. not this fucker he set up shop and wasnt going anywhere. he looked over his shoulder at me as if to say how dare you, cant you see i'm sleeping here? well we already paid for the room and i surely wasnt going to sleep next to the rotting body (sleeping next to tim c is bad enough) so its your classic gunslinger showdown. then for no good reason i can think of, enter the hotel clerk, maybe to tuck us in? anyway i point out the roach and the guy without hesitation grabs the sheet and flings this thing in to the air only to land somewhere else in the room and then proceeds to convince me it wasnt really there, he didnt see it, but there are woods around the area and it just walked in. just so you know there were no woods or trees or bushes for that matter anywhere close. so in the end the 4/5's of ludo sucked it up and made it through the night. i slept fully clothed on top of the sheets hovering 2-3 inches over the bed.
i hate you red carpet inn, i hate you.
-marshall

Monday 2:53am

2005-09-26T02:53:00.000-07:00

i'm losing my mind.

-marshall

Broken Bride

2005-08-29T23:56:00.000-07:00

I don't mean to hype, but this CD came out amazing. I'm so proud of it and can't wait any longer to hear some responses...it's eating me up every day, it's so hard to deal with. I hope everyone will be open to the whole 'rock opera' idea and will enjoy it as much as I do. I love how I can continue to listen to it over and over and love it more than the time before. Andrew wrote some awesome stuff. Minds will be blown, I promise.

-Pmo

this week

2005-08-23T04:47:00.000-07:00

hmmmm...lots of stuff.
it was a great week. I attended my first ever state fair. I consumed my first ever deep-fried oreos. (4 of them) We played Minneapolis for the second time ever. We played Madison and met / played with a really cool band called Quietdrive. We then went to the new location of possibly my favorite pizza place in the country. it's called Ian's and there are now 2 locations in Madison, WI which as far as i can tell are just a few blocks from each other. It's amazing. the pizza is delicious, but the atmosphere is what gets me. There's always so much going on. Our last time there (original location) i saw a guy get into a fight with a girl. 3 pizza dudes jumped the counter to break it up, and as the dude was being escorted out he punched the wall and put a hole in it! it was great. Stuff like that is totally normal there, and this week i was in the thick of it all.
i'm standing in line, and shortly after i walk in a guy walks in behind me, THe whole place lights up, everybody's like "Hey! mikey!" i mean EVERYBODY, the people working there, the people in line, everyone was just thrilled to see this guy. He was really drunk too, but he must have been the most popular guy in Madison, WI. He's shaking hands, throwing high fives, and shooting finger-guns all over the damn place. For a moment i consider letting this guy get in front of me, i mean he must be a pretty special guy. However i'm pretty hungry and selfish so i choose to remain in front of him. The line moves and eventually it's time to order. At this point, "mikey" has all but signed autographs. I order from this girl who gives me my slice. I'm then supposed to proceed to the guy at the register. well he's a little backed up, so the girl just says "$3.50" and i pay her and attempt to make my way past the other people paying and out the door. At this point, my buddy "mikey" decides to take a break from having his portrait painted by another customer and goes "hang on, did you pay for that?" As you can imagine, the record player stopped and the whole place got really quiet; mikey had something on his mind. The girl that served my pizza and took my money had disappeared into the back. The most popular human being in Madison and for all i know the most popular person in all of Wisconsin has just accused me of shoplifting a slice of steak & fries pizza. Everybody's looking at me, seconds seem like hours. i scope the crowd looking for sympathizers, witnesses, anything. I'm on my own. People are apalled and they want answers. Just before panic sets in, i take a deep breath and decide i'm in fucking Ludo - we just made a rock opera, i can deal with this. I decide to play it cool. I make kind of a Fonzy / Luke Perry / Steven Seagal face and then do a half laugh / half sigh "pffff!" put my free hand in the air, palm up, nod my head and say "yeah mikey, of course i paid for it!" Ian's is as silent as it's been all night. Everyone's attention goes from me to Mikey. Mikey looks me over once, and this is what i love about mikey - I was totally going for "this guy's drunk. I'll act like i know him or something, he won't want to be embarassed and he'll let it slide." Not what happened! Mikey smirks and proclaims, "Of course he paid for it!" The whole place goes nuts. People throw their arms in the air and everyone yells, "hey!!!" and they all start laughing. Mikey pats me on the back and i get the hell out of there. You see, Mikey knew i was bullshitting, but that night the most popular guy in Wisconsin liked my style and i made it our of Ian's pizza alive.
that went a lot longer than i thought. Saturday in Chicago was awesome. All the bands at the festival were good, and all very cool. Word of advice - don't wear an "I love NY" t-shirt in Chicago. People take offense it to it for some reason. it's really weird. and no that's not reason enough to not wear one, but i'll tell you what is - drunk girls approaching you every 10 minutes, pointing to you shirt and saying 'uhhh... you're in Chicago.' Every time i'd look down at my shirt, then look up and all around and say, 'i...i...i feel so stupid.' But it got to be a little much.

in closing, Bob Moog, the man who created Moog synthesizers died yesterday. It sucks. He was a pioneer who had an enormous effect on the popular music of the last 40 years. (Way more than most people think!) I really, really wanted to meet this guy and never did. I say all the time that if it weren't for Bob Moog, i'd have a desk job. The point is, this guy mattered in a way that most people don't. that's all i got.

"Bob shaped music in deep and meaningful ways by changing how music could be produced and ultimately, how it would sound. He contributed to a new soundscape. He was a musical pioneer for the love of it and musicians everywhere have had the opportunity to expand their own creative horizons with Bob's inventions. He will truly be missed by all of us, but we can take comfort in the fact that his musical innovations will live on in the music he has inspired" - Mike Adams

-Convy

i suck as a human.

2005-08-22T00:02:00.000-07:00

well i know i have been off the radar (as far as the blog goes) and i apologize. i really dont have much to say right now either, but i had pretty good god damn week. i cant say it enough, i love the record i made with my friends, i love megs and jenny for being the coolest people i have ever met and introducing me to a little show called "the office", and i cant wait to play again. oh yeah i almost forgot we went to madison this past week and stayed at this guy nick's house, yeah he's pretty bad ass and spoiled us rotten. two words... big, pouch,..... and another word... capri-sun. anyway thats it, unless you want to hear about some "after-party" we went to in chicago after the "feeling better than everfine festival" where robert randolph showed up, but thats so... oh look what i did and i hate typing that kind of stuff. i mean it was cool dont get me wrong but its not like i got drunk with the guy, but the o.a.r. guys were cool as shit and got me nice and boozed up which is always a sure way to win my heart... ladies? alright thats all i got right now. i should do this more often its kind of therapeutic.
peace out suckas
-MF

p.s. i dont believe in capitalization. i think it makes certain letters feel secondary, which is crap. its a racist way to type.

In the Studio...

2005-08-08T13:29:00.000-07:00

It's about 1:30am on Sunday night, and everything but vocals are complete on The Broken Bride EP. We've been running pretty much on schedule, it's just that we keep coming up with more things we want to do,a nd more ways to make it better. Luckily our producer has been really cool and allows us to engineer and take the controls when he leaves or goes to bed at night. As a result we've been able to accomplish a lot and do all the stuff we want to do. It's really really sounding amazing. We're definitely all pushing each other and getting the best out of everyone for the whole thing. I know i keep saying it, but i CANNOT WAIT for people to hear this stuff. Our friend Kevin from Thos stopped by and hung out last night (and did a little clapping as well!) and his reaction was great. The music is all over the place and we're pretty happy so far.

in other news.. i've had Hardee's all of the 5 consecutive days we've been here and i had a milkshake each time. baaawww. Between the 5 of us, we've watched the movie "THE EDGE" starring alec baldwin and anthony hopkins 37 times this week. thanks to everyone in Union for the letters and stuff on our van. and thanks for the coupons, stacy... i've used several.

so will you get it done? what will it sound like? what happens to the guy in the cave? does he save his wife? when's it coming out? when can i hear it? will there be a tour? are you coming to Atlanta? are you EVER coming to Utah? will you play the songs from the EP between now and the release? can i hear it online? what's a moog? ....STAY TUNED.

-convy

"Whoop That Trick"

2005-08-02T03:17:00.001-07:00

Just saw Hustle & Flow. It's awesome. i really, really liked the whole thing. great acting, great story. see it.

tomorrow we lay down the first tracks of what will become The Broken Bride EP. I may not sleep until late September. that's how excited i am.

-Convy

no sugar tonight...

2005-07-27T02:39:00.000-07:00

Ludo is a busy band. We record next week and we're trying to actually release the thing as soon as possible. And obviously we're going to want to do a tour afterwards too. bottom line, none of us are sleeping much and i'm so backlogged on emails, phone calls, myspace... all of it. So i apologize to those who haven't heard from me/ us lately. The good news is, we're getting ready to record some really amazing music. People are going to freak out. It's very different for us, but at the same time it's still Ludo. I feel like it's a record that only we could make and i take a lot of pride in that. there's a little bit of everything and a whole lot of some other things. I'm not sure if it's what people will expect out of us, but it's the music that we want to make right now. i really hope we can capture these songs in the studio and really create something special. We'll all know soon, so stay tuned.

in other news, last week was one of the greatest weeks in Ludo history. the chicago show was amazing - everything we could have hoped for. Then we went to indianapolis for the midwest music summit. we saw and met a ton of cool bands. I'm sure we'll be doing shows with several of them soon. Our show went really well (despite basically being in a Showbiz pizza.) Lots of Indy fans and of course some Ball Staters showed up. We made a lot of new friends that night. We actually also met the current guitar player for the Black Crowes and spent the weekend trying to keep up with a REAL rock star. (some of us tried harder than others) Anyway we all had a great time and didn't sleep too much.

and now...

Fantastic 4 - sucks
Charlie and the... - really, really good
Wedding Crashers - Excellent

i think that's all i've got. we're playing with Goldfinger on Saturday. that blows my mind.
you should all listen to Pomeroy.

-Convy

Cleaning

2005-06-15T03:07:00.000-07:00

I'm going to clean up my desk. it's a mess, i'm going to clean it. i'm not going to sit and write this blog forever. i'm going to clean my desk. i'm not going to discuss the movies i've seen recently...ok i am, but that's it. then i clean.
I've been seeing a lot of movies

Cinderella Man - i'm not that huge of a Russell Crowe fan. I don't hate him, but i'm not crazy about him. i really thought this movie was great. they bring you WAY down, which the makes the ending all the more triumphant. It's one of those compelling dramas about... i dont' know. just see it. I really enjoyed it.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith - I can't tell you why i saw this movie. from the moment i saw the preview i thought it was going to be terrible. i thought that putting brad pitt and angelina jolie in a film together was going to be like when Pitt made a movie with julia roberts. this movie was called "The Mexican" and i strongly feel that it's one of the worst movies ever made. (not as bad as the mummy) Anyway, i went anyway, cause that's my thing this summer: I see movies. Turns out the movie was actually pretty good. i was shocked, but i really liked it. maybe it's cause my expectations were so low, but ...whatever it's good. It's really funny...i'm not going to use the word "chemistry" but yeah...they're both really good. the action is great and angelina is all kinds of beautiful. see it.

Lords of Dogtown - I went for one reason: this summer, tim convy sees movies. Again. low expectations. figured it'd be pretty teeny-bopper. but i liked this one too. the skateboard scenes are awesome and it's really weird to see these kids kind of invent skateboarding as it is today. (it's based on a group of dudes in soCal in the mid / late 70's - there's a documentary about them called Dogtown and the Z-boys) It gets a little weird towards the end (like they try to jam too much of the real story in the last 25 minutes) but it's cool. HEath Ledger's in it. I'm not a heath ledger fan... but the guy blew my mind. totally not a role you'd picture him in, but he was excellent.

And as for rentals...

DIG - Ferrell, Marshall and i took this one in recently. it's a documentary about 2 bands - The Brian jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols. It follows both bands (who emerged from the same scene) for 7 years. they were determined to take over the world together, but they ended up taking 2 different paths and forming a weird love-hate relationship. the stuff they get on tape is amazing and the people in these bands are ridiculous. i highly, highly recommend this movie.

Ok, i'll do some music too. some cool stuff has come out recently....then i'll clean.

Motion City Soundtrack - Dude.....Dude. i'm really, really into this. Even if you don't care for MCS's last record you should check this one out, it's a whole nother story. i dont' listen to a lot of bands that MCS gets grouped with ("scene" stuff or whatever) with the exception of MCS and Brand New.I don't know what to say. it's really really good. it rocks and i notice something new in the lyrics every time i listen to it. it's very honest and not in a cheesy way - in fact i don't think he mentions his heart once! The music is all very well done, and i really like their drummer. the drumming sticks out, but not in a bad way. the songs are just good. I'm not really doing it justice, but everyone should listen to this record at least once.

I also recently go the new Coldplay and White Stripes. To be quite honest i've been listening to Motion City so much, i haven't had time for either. But on 1st listen - the White Stripes CD is really cool. i feel the same way about it that i felt about the other WS record the 1st time heard those. Some of the songs i'm immeadiately in love with and some i'm like "eh..." but those always grow on me. i've listened to Coldplay maybe once...sounds like coldplay... i'll listen more.

i'm going to bed.

-Convy

Useless

2005-05-26T02:35:00.000-07:00

ahhhh...

hello all. So i've seen a few movies recently - we're on the road but not playing every night. Figured i'd offer some thoughts.

Star Wars - It's ridiculous. it's so entertaining it's unbelievable. We actually spent last weekend watching all the other Star Wars movies before we went to see the new one and it made it that much better. i wanted it to be longer.

Crash - I liked this. It's intense. lots of emotion. Deals with prejudice and racism. Good acting. some cool stories, cool suprises. definitely a good movie. i really don't like Brendan Fraser, but i'm ok with that because tony danza was in the movie.

Kicking and Screaming - Knocked this one out tonight. Wish i hadn't. pretty bad. really bad. obviously had some funny parts but it was weak. speaking of bad movies with good actors it was only slightly better than "Envy."

i'm in love with the chick from Gilmore Girls (which i've seen twice with Ferrell's sister, Kelly) but not so in love that i'll see that sisterhood of the pants movie.

i like the new weezer CD. i don't love it. i need to listen to it more.

We saw hellogoodbye last night. They're good. Their CD is really good - fun and different. really good songs.

I'm currently in houston, TX at palermo's house. I'm outside watching matt and Domino (yes, the merch guy who once spilled a full beer into a tub full of Ludo shirts) in the Jacuzzi.

this blog had no useful insights whatsoever and i'm a terrible movie reviewer.

-Convy

to each: his own.

2005-05-05T03:56:00.000-07:00

so we're in california. i'm way behing on blogging, and the OC blog is going to have to wait. I've got a ton to say, who knows what i'll get to...

-So many of you have heard about my mishap at the BSU show last week. i won't get into it, but my face is healing nicely and i do appreciate all the kind emails.

-i've had enough of bands wearing eyeliner. i get it and it's fine, but it's so goddamn trendy right now it's ridiculous. i realize i have friends in bands that do this and there are bands i like that do this, i'm just saying i'm out on the whole thing. (many of you are probably thinking 'hasn't convy been wearing ties a lot lately?' guilty. but c'mon, eyeliner is a different story) and what makes me even more sick is all these girls who are like 'i love guys in eyeliner.' what the hell is that? that's not like a natural thing you're drawn to, it's a stupid trend. in 4th grade were you like 'i love a man in a slap bracelet?' in 8th grade were you like 'i need a guy who rocks an acid-washed tight roll'? actually, maybe you were. i've just had enough. i mean a lot of these bands are small touring bands like us. i don't need to tell you that money is tight. we only eat when we have to and we avoid spending money whenever possible. the idea that there's a band somewhere on their way to a show and somebody's like 'oh shit, can we stop and get some eyeliner before we get to the club?'.. it blows my mind. Now i'm known to change clothes before i go on stage and try to look sharp. as of late i've even been known to put some stuff in my hair (you would to, if your brother cut your hair and did what he did to mine.) i assure you when i'm in the bathrooms of these clubs and i'm putting the stuff in my hair i'm usually kind of embarassed. it's just not very rock n' roll. So the idea of applying eye make up in the bathroom of one of these clubs is the most perplexing thing to me. ahhhhh. these are my thoughts on bands wearing eyeliner ...but to each his own.

- i got the new ben folds. it's delicious. it came with a making of DVD. i really like ben folds. i'll write some more in depth thoughts on the record later. but it's good, go buy it.

-the ben folds thing got me thinking. he thanks his wife all over the record, dedicates it to her and talks about what great ears she has. that's awesome and i really hope she does, but there's a chance that she doesn't and he just gets her involved in making it because he loves her so much. so then i started thinking about Linda McCartney. (ok, Linda was paul mccartney's wife, as in paul from the beatles. post-beatles he formed the band Wings and had Linda sing and play some keyboards) Now it's sort of popular opinion that Linda McCartney wasn't really that talented...or musical...at all. BUT Paul loved her so much that he put her in the band. Now who's to say that she made Wings any worse, or that they would have been better without her? not me. Wings was amazing (but they had Paul writing the songs so it was sort of inevitable) But who knows? they cold have been better with someone else, and you know they would have been better live with someone else doing her parts. It's possible that in some way she screwed things up, screwed up paul's music. Did he know and no care? did he even notice? does i matter? To each: his own.The bottom line here is that i truly hope that someday i find someone i love so much that i don't mind them fucking up my music.

-i've got so much more on my mind, but it can wait. i'm tired and we've got to rock Fresno tomorrow.

-Convy

-

'just sing about the groove'

2005-04-20T00:22:00.000-07:00

and continuing with my commitment to blogging...

my last blog told the story of my Friday night on our weekend off and i believe made some reference to the fact that i'd be going out Saturday night. well i did and it was a fascinating evening. i went downtown to The Broadway Oyster Bar where Thos was playing. from there, here are the highlights and lowlights of that evening:

-singing "Bust a Move" and "Groove is in the Heart" onstage with Thos
-my ride leaving while i was onstage being an idiot
-realizing i didn't have a ride home from Broadway Oyster Bar
-not having a ride home from Broadway Oyster Bar
-being at a weird building in Soulard from 2:30am until 5:30am with 2 friends and a buch of dudes i didn't know
-listening to one of these dudes tell me that his buddy's band (who i had never heard of) could 'really help you guys out with some things'
-watching several of these dudes devour 10 military bag meals and spilling powdered strawberry shake everywhere
-watching these dudes throw fireworks (and i don't mean like bottlerockets, these things were ridiculous) into the abandoned building next door and watching the whole thing light up
-convincing a prostitute who passed by that they were just fireworks, not gun shots and that everything was ok ( i think my exact words were "don't worry those weren't gun shots. everything's ok.... i mean you're still a prostitute, but other than that everything's ok.) ...i didn't actually say that.

we played with Hawthorne Heights Monday night and they were unbelievably nice. and they rocked.
summer is almost here.
i would get more chicks if i were french

that's all,

Convy

ps - please stay tuned for my next blog tentatively titled "Why i know i hate 'The O.C.' even though i've never seen it."

Saturday

2005-04-17T00:13:00.000-07:00

Yeah, so I finally had a day where I didn't set an alarm and got to stay in bed as long as I damn well pleased. I can't remember the last time that happened. I love Saturdays. And we worked on new music the rest of the night.

By the way, it turns out "I wanna hold you in the bible-black pre-dawn" is REALLY a great line to a great song... to think I used to hate Wilco.

4 cents

2005-04-16T01:53:00.000-07:00

k,

after learning a bit recently about the "blogging community" i'm going to do my best to blog as often as possible...even if i've got nothing to say.

we're working on a new song right now, and i can only describe it as 'wicked.' it's definitely different from anything we've done before. can't wait for people to hear some of these new songs, i hope they like screamo. ...just kidding.

it's the first Friday night we've had off in a while, and i'm celebrating by doing NOTHING. sitting home alone. not bad at all. the highlight of my evening occured at Steak n' shake earlier. i only had $7. i ordered a single steakburger with everything and a chili mac supreme. it was $6.96. Phew! Then while making my food, the guy looks at me and says
"did you know we were out of pickles?"
"oh man, i guess you better cut me a deal on a milkshake then."
"how much you got?"
"4 cents."
"what kind?"
"chocolate"
"cool"
It was delicious.

tomorrow night i plan an going out all night. Thos (www.thosmusic.com) is playing all night downtown. it's going to rule.

-Convy

BABY BUNNY!!!!!!!!

2005-04-15T02:29:00.000-07:00

Leaving Tim Ferrell's house late last night, Matt and I were driving back to Chez Me, when lo and behold, right there in the suburban street of the Ferrell's Glendale neighborhood was a large cat investigating/stalking something in the middle of the road. The bodacious headlights of my Toyota Camry scared his feline ass away.

But what to our wondering eyes should appear? A baseball-sized bunny rabbit squatting quizzically, unsure of his next step. Matt and I went crazy: "BABY BUNNY!!!!!! AHH!!!!!! GRAB IT! SAVE ITS LIFE!!!!!!"

So we did. Matt and I jumped out of the car and lovingly cornered the beautiful fucker, and despite a few sloppy baby bunny hops, he was wrangled without incident. Like super-crazy bunny-robbers, we jumped back in the car with the fist-sized furry wonderbuddy and drove away. What was our plan? Who knows! We got a BABY BUNNY!!!!!! WE GOT A BABY BUNNY!!!!! Sweet life! The cat would not take his fuzzy soul that fateful night! No fucking way!

Matt, out of fear of baby bunny urination, held his sweet rabbit booty over an empty Bread Company bag, and lovingly stroked his head the whole ride home like Lenny in Of Mice and Men. We named him Clive Davis: The Smallest Rabbit Ever. It was very difficult not to kiss his head. Clive chilled out and totally relaxed (a la bubble bath sex relaxation) in Matt's capable Italian hands. I called Sarah Frei, one of my people with the inside scoop on matters of veterinary science. She gave me the Baby Bunny 411.

Clive should either be brought to the Wildlife Rescue people in the morning, OR back to a place in the wild of our choosing. I opted to bring him back to his little spot (oo, oo! maybe he lives in a HUTCH!!! with other baby bunny children!!!! AAAAAHHHHH!!!! I WANT A BABY BUNNY HUTCH!!!!! Let's find one tomorrow and stick our faces in it and KISS ALL THE BUNNIES!!!!! :D ) in Glendale, with at least a little more street cred and worldliness. Even if we bought that poor adorable kissyshit one more night without being turned to Kibbles n Bits, it was worth it.

In the meantime, somebody (and by somebody, I mean ME AND MATT!!!!!!!) had to put Clive up for the night. So I called my mama, and I said, "Mama, get outta bed, and find me a box! We're bringing home a baby bunny named Clive Davis!"

She replied, "No you're not."

"Oh no mom, I can't hear you! Too much static. Put some pants on! We're bringing Clive the small rabbit to the house for a sleepover okay bye!"

With Nancy's awesome midnight assistance, Matt and I laid some paper towel bedding in an empty box of Ludo CD's (30 count), soaked some cotton balls with drinking water and put them on a plastic lid, threw in some leafy lettuce from a McDonald's Bacon Ranch salad (AND A STRAWBERRY BECAUSE I BELIEVE BABY BUNNIES LOVE STRAWBERRIES SOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!), and put an old see-through drumhead over the top, so Mr. Crazy Hoppy Ass wouldn't get all hoppy and hop out chaotically into our lives. And yes, Matt made airholes in the box for Clive Davis: The Smallest Rabbit Ever to breathe his little cute rabbit breaths all night long.

Our baby bunny boy Clive put his bunny nose in the little box corner and went to sleep. After all, he was sleepy. What a night! That crazy terror-cat tried to eat him, and then a bunch of huge people picked him up and put him in a cardboard terrarium with a giant strawberry. Besides, he had a big day tomorrow - a day full of twitching his nose and being a beautiful baby bunny.

It will be sad to say goodbye to small, small wonderful Clive. But such is life. One day you are picking a baby bunny in crisis off the wild and merciless streets of Glendale, MO. The next day, your saying goodbye to your baby man, trying to hold back the tears. "Go to your hutch... just go... it's your time now Clive. It's your time. Out there. In the hedges of St. Louis County. You're free now. Go... go my sweet boy, go..."

I love you Clive Davis. You are truly the smallest (and most beautiful) rabbit ever. Never forget that. Maybe I'll visit your hutch some day. But I will always knock before poking my head in. Because I know that in addition to being cute, you rabbit-types are known for constant and vigorous fucking. And Lord knows you don't want some person's giant face appearing in your doorway right before you reach your little bunny-orgasm.

:D

-Andrew

...elvis the king has moved to New Jersey

2005-04-03T01:29:00.000-08:00

so no one's blogged for a while. i'll take one for the team.

I saw sin city tonight. i liked it. weird. very violent. you're definitely watching a comic book.

everything's been crazy since SPRIIIIIIIING BREAAAAAAAKKKK!!!! good shows though. there were over 2000 people at the Switchfoot show. and i'm pretty sure there was a marriage proposal on stage at our show on Saturday. Freaks me out. any time andrew gets serious on stage i get uncomfortable.

...can't wait to play with all the bands we've got coming up. Something Corporate, Motion City, LBC, Hawthorne Heights and THE DOG! but ...SOOOOO much driving this month!

...my dad gave me a talk the other day about my bad haircut.

and now, a story...

no... it hurts too bad still. ...later i will blog about the downfall of my favorite shirt and the events that led to its sorrowful downfall.

-Convy

Dreams

2005-03-02T16:16:00.000-08:00

The other night I had a dream about going to Wal-Greens and purchasing chapstick and q-tips. I was out of both of these items in reality and woke up the next day saddened that my dream didn't come true. So I went to Wal-Greens and bought chapstick and q-tips. In conclusion: dreams do come true.
Does it mean you don't get out enough when you have dreams like this?

Pmo

I'm 25

2005-02-28T05:04:00.000-08:00

Who knows where this is going...

It was an amazing weekend with very little sleep. My birthday was Thursday, our St. Louis show was Friday, and we played Lawrence on Saturday. My birthday consisted of sleeping late, band practice, dinner with my family and going out with some friends. Though not thrilled to be turning 25 i hadn't given it that much thought until dinner with my family.
My mom brought out a cake and everyone was singing. And now the cake... 1st of all it had 5 candles on it. I'm absolutely certain this is the 1st birthday ever that my cake did not have as many candles as the age i was turning (plus 1 of course for good measure.) This i found a little depressing. Then I looked closer. This cake ( part of which still remains in my kitchen ) was about 30 different colors. It looked like a circus. There were streamers, confetti, and all sorts of other designs made out of icing. It may as well have had a clown on it. The point is, the cake looked like a cake for a 4 year old and the "25" in "Happy 25th Birthday, T" looked comicallly out of place. Also a bit depressing. And for a split-second i thought of the cake as a microcosm for my life. i'm getting older and i'm in the middle of this totally insane, ridiculous, and juvenile lifestyle. Do i look as out of place as the 25 on my cake?
So, deep in thought, i inhaled to blow out all 5 candles. Very consciously i inhaled deeply as if i was blowing out all 26 candles that were rightfully mine. Perhaps the deep breath brought too much oxygen to my brain and i had a brief euphoric moment. As i exhaled and blew the candles out i laughed at the ridiculousness of my momentary depression. I was glad my cake looked the way it did and that my life was the way it was. i had nothing to complain about. If the 25 looked at all out of place it was because not enough 25 year olds stop and enjoy their birthday cake.
I went out that night with my friends and had a blast. Most of them are far more grown up than i am. They've got cars, apartments, and even friggin fiancees. Which is cool, but what do their birthday cakes look like? I do what i love and i love what i do which is worth far more than all that stuff. And the following night at Mississippi Nights i hated myself for letting those thoughts even cross my mind.
The whole night was great. I couldn't walk through the venue for even a minute without getting my hands filled with gifts. highlights include: great cards, drawings, signs, letters, a homemade tiara, killer socks, an awesome T-shirt with Keyboards all over it, CD's, a rubber duckie, Scrabble, personalized instrument cables and enough baked goods to last me til my next birthday. Thanks to everyone! And the show was great too. The crowd ruled and we got to meet tons of new people afterwards. We all felt incredibly lucky.
Saturday night in Lawrence was the last show of our run with Pomeroy. Ahhh so bittersweet. Andrew wore a highschool bandleader's uniform becuase Pomeroy beat us in bowling. We will not bowl with Pomeroy again. The show was sweet. Over 750 people and i can only describe the venue as 'Disneyland'. I will miss pomeroy. I think we definitely learned a lot from playing with them.

other stuff.
-Jamie Foxx won best actor and he deserves it.
-i watched 'some kind of monster' the metallica documentary that just came out on DVD. It's really, really good. unfortunately it documents them making a record that's really, really bad.
- i cannot express how excited i am to play the Spring Break shows that we have coming up.
- i need a new cell phone.
- marshall fanciullo recently pointed out to me that the song "Shine" by Collective Soul features one of the greatest guitar solos of all time. You wouldn't expect it, but listen to it.
- i must go to sleep now.

-Convy

Valentine's Day

2005-02-14T02:53:00.000-08:00

alright, it's been too long since i've done one of these. Lots has happened so far in 2005. As most of you know i met Screech. i do believe the pictures will be on the Ludo site soon. the next weekend was X-games. it was ridiculous. i learned that you can replace any consonant with the letter "X" and it doesn't change the pronnunciation, it just makes the word more extreme. For example, i may start refferring to myslef as "Tim Xonvy." It's still pronnounced "Convy," it just makes me more extreme. this can be useful. But we had a real good time in Aspen, met very cool people and played 2 very cool shows. My brother came with us too which is always an adventure.

In just the last few weeks we've played with ABJ, Holden, Upside, Pomeroy, The Dog & Everything and Anchondo. playing with our friends makes all the shows so much better. so it's been fun. March has got some pretty cool shows for us and i seriously can't wait. i love playing in new places. And feb. 25th in St. Louis is going to be unbelievable. We've got lots of friends coming in and we'll be celebrating my birthday... so you should come.

i just got the album 'I'm wide awake it's morning' by Bright Eyes. i'm a big fan of Bright Eyes and i knew i would like it, but i really, really like it. I get something new out of it every time i listen. also, there's a song called "I can't make me" by Butterfly Boucher. i insist you find it and listen to it now. also, ben folds' new record comes out in april and you can hear the 1st single, "landed" on his website. i'm obsessed with ben folds.

...so i watched the grammy's tonight. ( much of this may not make sense unless you watched.) mixed feelings.
-green day was awesome.
-kanye west was great. his record's so good, and that speech he gave was bad as shit.
-That all-star Tsunami thing was pretty pathetic. Is any one really going to download that? what a beautiful song butchered horribly
-And Ray Charles winning album of the year...here's what i think. Ray Charles is amazing. fucking amazing. his music is amazing. that album however isn't that great. it's over-produced and cheesy. It's like all those other people's duets albums...not that good. But they gave it to him, and whatever. i'd love to have seen Green Day win.
-Marc Anthony is a much better singer than his wife.
-That country-rock performance was pitiful. i could go on forever with my issues with Lynrd Skynrd but now is not the time. That Keith Urban guy was the best part of the whole thing.
-Country music ( and i mean people like Tim McGraw and Gretchen Wilson) is such a fucking joke. It irritates me as much as ashlee simpson - the worst thing in music right now.
- they gave Wilco grammys for 'best alternative music album' and 'best album packaging' so i'll forgive them for the Tim mcgraw performance
-joss stone is incredible. i am in love with her. she was astounding. (and she wasn't wearing shoes!!)
- i dig queen latifah.

so now it's valentine's day. happy valentine's day.

-Convy

Ding, Dong, the Beard is DEAD!

2005-02-10T23:18:00.000-08:00

Well there it is laying in the sink... the remains of my best friend, my guide, and a trusty navagation tool. The beard has been shaven clean.
Over and out good buddy.
-MF

ABSTINENCE: The Marshall Fanciullo Way

2005-02-03T13:26:00.000-08:00

Chapter 1
THE ART OF NOT DOING IT

STEP 1
Grow a beard.

The End.

-MF

X-Games = Awesome.

2005-02-01T23:27:00.000-08:00

Highlights:
-being at the X-Games
-getting "industry guest" passes so we could get into a bunch of "backstage" type stuff
-eating free, delicious meals
-being at the X-Games
-meeting new Ludo fans
-going up to the top lip of the halfpipe
-Marshall slipping and falling on the way down from the halfpipe
-WATCHING SHAUN WHITE'S PRELIM RUN FROM ON TOP OF THE HALFPIPE AND WATCHING HIM FLY RIGHT ABOVE MY FACE (he's my hero)
-rockin 2 Ludo fullband acoustic shows for the first time ever
-being at the X-Games
-being accompanied by Marshall's beard in the mountains
-having a strikingly attractive man named Chris Convy accompany us
-not having the trailer
-being in Aspen and thinking about Dumb and Dumber the whole time
-getting free X-Games hoodies
-listening to everyone use the word "stoked" a ridiculous amount of times
-watching The Roots perform live on a huge outside stage in the middle of downtown Aspen
-being at the X-Games
-having awesome weather
-watching motocross guys jump 90 feet in the air
-getting a foam finger that's a thumbs-up and says "sweet trick" on it
-being at the X-Games
...that's all I can think of right now, I'm sure there's a lot more.
In conclusion, it was awesome and I didn't want to leave.

-Pmo

Saved By the... Waffle House?

2005-01-23T23:53:00.000-08:00

so there we are after a hard night a rockin' springfield, MO. what better than to fill our bellies with some of america's finest grease at a local Waffle House? its your average run of the mill dining experience, i'm a lil' sauced up and eating late once again (had to send the first dish back, my hash browns came covered, smothered, and... furred?), the waiter (jona, which is a dude) is in love with tim c, elton john and billy joel set the mood over the juke box (courtesy tim c & brie).
enter dustin diamond aka mother fucking screech (sans belding). i effectively shit my pants and played it cool all at once. i mean i grew up watching this guy, saved by the bell has been woven in to the fabric that is marshall. zack, kelly, a.c., lisa, jesse, and screech were some of my best friends, like it or not i am a bayside alumni. so what am i going to do, sop up the rest of the grease on my plate, tuck my dick between my legs, crawl in to the van and head back to the hotel? no fuck that i'm getting a picture with this dude. i proceed to the van grab a ludo cd and tim and myself make our way over to mr. powers. introductions are made, trade a few stories of being famous (minus us having stories about being famous), and set up a rendezvous for a couple of snap shots. tim and i wait in the cold van for what seemed like an eternity and totally freakin out.
me: dude, this is totally going to happen.
tim: dude, i cant believe this is happening
me: dude, its so cold
tim: dude, is this guy going to come out?
me: dude, it is so cold.
tim: dude, this is awesome.
me: dude, i know.
or something like that. so to make a short story longer we got the pics, tim and i bonded over some pop culture, and dustin diamond is a really cool guy. nice enough to put up with a couple middle school minded guys in a band at 4:30 in a very, very, very cold missouri morning.
so sleepy, goodnight.
love
-MF

some thoughts - really

2005-01-10T03:33:00.000-08:00

the metro show was awesome. really, really awesome.

the no longer obese Anna-Nicole Smith, though still completely nuts is still hot. i fought it, but she is, she's still hot. sorry.

'american idiot' is really, really good. i should have declared this a while ago, but it took me some time to listen. turns out, i REALLY love it.

it's very cold. i'm looking forward to Texas.

Michael J. Fox is the greatest television actor of all time.

Ben Folds has recently moved into my top 5 favorite artists of all time.

if it was socially acceptable, i would never wear shoes.

i think ellen degeneres is hilarious. i don't know why. she really makes me laugh. is that weird?

Jamie Foxx should win an oscar. he's been overdue since Booty Call. but seriously, he should.

Upside has a new song called "puppets." it rules.

i'm reading 'learning how to die' it's a book about Wilco and i'm really enjoying it.

sorry about that anna nicole smith thing. i couldn't fight it any more.

TC

happy new year

2005-01-01T01:37:00.000-08:00

it's nearly 5am on new year's day. i'm in New York City with my good buddies kevin and scott from the band Thos. We saw Wilco and The Flaming Lips at Madison Square Garden. it was unbelievable. can't wait to start playing rock shows again. it's been way too long.

love and miss you all. HAPPY NEW YEAR.

TC
Ludo

Well... God Bless Dime

2004-12-14T21:20:00.000-08:00

Dean Z. from Dean Guitars had a nice write-up about Dime. I don't think he'll mind too much if I post if for you guys:

As I sit here awake at 2:34 am, feeling numb beyond belief to the news that our good friend Darrell Abbott is no longer with us, I would like to share my thoughts as they come to mind.

I met Darrell when he was only a kid, not old enough to get into the clubs for which he would later grace the stages throughout his impressive career. This kid was great at 16 years old and destined to become the Idol we now know as Dimebag Darrell.

Darrell became the true persona of a Rock Star. He personified and exemplified the Rock life …he lived it 24/7. It is the Dimebag Darrells that make this industry we all are so emotionally attached to "bigger than life." He truly knew his role...after all; he was also Rock's biggest fan. He grew up with the dream and had what it takes to put it all together.

Anyone who ever met Dimebag Darrell will tell you, they were touched for life. He treated his fans like royalty, as he knew what it was like to be a kid at a concert and seeing your idol onstage…he wanted to give it all back. When Darrell was off stage, he was always aware of whom he was and the effect he had on his fans. People who knew him will tell you that behind the persona of Dimebag Darrell was a guy who was kind, loyal, sentimental, full of emotion, full of life, charismatic and extremely talented. Darrell was an artist not only with a guitar but also with a pen. When I would meet with him, he would show up with a file folder full of drawings of his guitar designs.

Just a few weeks ago I was with Darrell at a show in Milwaukee . Backstage after the show 2 kids were waiting at the stage door and would not leave without seeing Darrell. When he got wind of this he insisted they be brought back to meet him. These kids were so in awe to meet their idol, then Darrell rocked their world when he put them on the VIP list for the Chicago show the very next day.

Darrell was one of Rock's greatest guitarists. He took metal to whole new level and showed young rockers how the instrument was to be played. He made young kids all over the world want to pick up a guitar and play like Dime! He potentially inspired more kids to play guitar than any artist in recent history.

On a personal note, words cannot express the loss I am feeling. Of all the stars I have met in the past 28 years, nobody touched me like Darrell. He was the artist who would bring me on stage and introduce me as the world's greatest guitar maker. He was a fan of mine as I was a fan of him. No single artist has done more for the popularity of Dean Guitars than Dimebag Darrell.

These past months working with Darrell on new guitar designs, talking to him just about every day have been the most invigorating times in my 28-year career. Seeing Dime onstage with a Dean in his hands again brought back feelings I thought were gone forever. Just yesterday I was on the phone with him discussing the photo shoot we had set up for the show in Michigan on Friday to introduce his new Razorback design. He started talking about how he couldn't wait to get home in a few days to work on the new Damageplan CD. He said this new CD was going to be heavier than ever and blow people's minds.

I cannot help but think about Rita. She and Darrell had been together since they were in 3rd grade. I have worked very closely with her these past months as she handles all of Dimes affairs. She is truly the woman behind the man and Dimebag would have told you, he wouldn't have been Dimebag without Rita. She is one very special person and I cannot fathom the pain she must be feeling. Our deepest sympathy goes out to his brother Vinnie and the rest of his family. Our hearts go out as well to the other victims of this horrible tragedy.

Darrell was a living legend. He lived every day of his life to the fullest. I will always remember his smile onstage. He loved what he did and it showed. No matter how big the crowd, he could always find you and fling a guitar pick your way. We at Dean have lost a great artist but more importantly, a true friend. The world has lost a great human being.

++ Dean B. Zelinsky

Very Ludo Christmas

2004-12-05T22:31:00.000-08:00

Well I couldn't wait for December 4th to come, now I want to go back in time and do it all over again, I had way too much fun. I need one of those time machines that Andrew created in that new song “Broken Bride.” ...Wait a minute no I don't, then dinosaurs would kill me. Regardless, thank you to EVERYONE who came to rock with us, I had so much fun. Thank you to everyone who wished me a happy early birthday. Thank you to everyone who supplied delicious treats and everyone who gave us lovely cards, you’re all awesome. And thank you to Ferrell’s cousin for making Fanciullo look so good with his new haircut. And thank you to Andrew for going crazy on all the sweet decorations on stage. And thank you to all the bands that rocked with us. And thank you to Mrs. Convy/Chris Convy for supplying me with such great clothing…those pants were awesome.

Alright I’m done thanking.
No wait, a big thank you to my parents for flying from Houston to see us rock.

When is the frekin next big thing winner going to be announced? Jeez.

-Pmo

Thanksgiving...

2004-11-25T20:51:00.000-08:00

Hello,

Happy Thanksgiving.

1st of all, before there were blogs, where did people say what they were thankful for?

I'm very thankful for many things.
I'm thankful for my family and that i'm home now and get to be with all of them.
I'm so thankful for all my friends - even the ones who have recently gotten engaged which really freaks me out.
I'm thankful for all that we've done in the last year. I'm thankful for all the experiences we've had and especially all the friends that we've made all over the country. It blows my mind that after touring for such a short time we've got friends EVERYWHERE we go.
I'm thankful for the 4 dudes that i'm in a band with. The combination and the fact that we all found each other blows my mind, but not as often as it should.

I'm very thankful for Ludo fans. I don't know of other bands that have fans like ours. Our fans want to share our music and get it to other people. it amazes me that the people that knew about us a year ago don't constantly remind newer fans of that. You cannot find a messabe board ANYWHERE that has as many people as ours that is as friendly. And the shows! We have the best fans of any band i know. i for that i'm very very thankful.

i have to go.

-Convy

Magically Delectable

2004-11-22T23:24:00.000-08:00

I had Lucky Charms for breakfast every single day last week...except one day I had a strawberry Pop-Tart because we were out of milk.
December 4th is sure going to rock.

-Pmo

Belly of the Beast

2004-11-19T10:53:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I'll give you a blog. I dream in color. I mean vivid, intense dreams that leave me exhausted. This morning I found myself in water. I don't know how I got there... I just know that it had something to do with us playing a show that ended up being ok but not great at some venue that reminds me of a country home. For some reason we were there for two days and got to see the local band who was supposed to play with us the first night play a decent show the next night. At least, one of the band members told me it was decent, but I have no recollection of a stage or club or show of any kind. The only other person there besides me and one band member was some girl who, instead of selling merch for the other band, was selling books on vegan cookery at the country home/venue. She was cute. Good for her.

So, like I said, I found myself in water. The country home/venue was on a lake. From my position in the water looking to shore I could see the venue as a log cabin at the edge of the water on the left and land spreading out from it to the right going nowhere. It was cloudy and grey, and the water was clear, but dark. As I turned around there was a small island directly ahead of me about fifty feet away and just big enough for a couple of people to stand on... not really an island in the normal sense - just a small piece of grassy land in the middle of water. With the venue now behind me and shore to my left and again as a sort of peninsula directly ahead of me, past the "island" a few hundred feet away, I could see where the lake really spread out and became enormous diagonal to my left. It looked huge... I never got there. I did, however, take off... fast. I was waist deep but straight up and down and seemed to be on some sort of ride that I had no interest in enjoying. I went straight to the right of the island and circled it - facing the expanse of lake the entire time. Around a couple of times and moderately beginning to enjoy myself. As I came back towards the country home on the last turn around the island, I was spun around. I stared at an ENORMOUS whale in the water in front of the venue. I know very little about sea creatures so I can't describe it other than to say it was black and silver and grey and mind-bendingly gigantic and, luckily, opening it's mouth and sucking in the water as well as myself. Think of Monstro from Pinnochio. There is something absolutely terrifying about being swallowed by a whale, have no doubt about it. Besides the gut-wrenching physical fear is the concern that my mind has been so thoroughly penetrated by either Disney or my catholic upbringing that I'm forced to endure something like this. Just kidding about all that... the real concern is the fact that the myth of being in the belly of the beast can be found in an extraordinary variety of cultures and civilizations all through recorded history and somehow I experienced it. Even Anthrax sang about it. Nice. Enjoy Pinnochio, but do it while reading Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces. Boy are you in for a treat.

Once inside... for who knows how long... I have no idea what I did that effected the whale enough for it to open its jaws, but I managed to escape and in looking around afterwards I noticed I was INSIDE the country home now but locked inside a one-man, submarine-type, clear, plastic capsule and the whale was right beside me... but now only 3 or 4 feet long (which comes to me as a significant relief). I manage to wrap the thing in a cloth/straight-jacket something or other and can't stop pulling open its mouth in wonder of how the hell I got out of there. Looking around the capsule I find directions on how to decompress and get out. I have to manuever 2 or 3 gauges (one needing to be below 71 - ?) and then feel it unlock and hiss and open so I can get out. Now I'm standing in the country home/venue which has turned into a sort of mythical gift shop where some crazy man is trying to find just the right thing for me to take with me as I go on my way - to remember the experience. He finds some sort of fuzzy-headed doll that I can't quite remember but I'm overwhelmed with a feeling of "Fuck no, not today, thank you kindly..." and I'm free to go.

How's THAT for a blog? I may not write often, but come on...

-T. Ferrell

Home Again, Home Again..

2004-11-14T22:13:00.000-08:00

So nice to be home, but i'm already itchin' to go play some shows. Very excited to be working on new material though. Also pumped about all the shows i'm going to get to see while we're in town. Thursday i saw Marilyn Manson at The Pageant. UNBELIEVABLE. I've never seen anything like it.

Upside Friday. AAAAHHHMMM IN!

-Convy

ps- vote for the Next Big Thing!

Kinko's in Vegas

2004-11-05T02:27:00.001-08:00

I am at a Kinko's in Las Vegas wondering why in the hell I'm in Las Vegas AND in a Kinko's. Shouldn't I be underneath a stripper or something?

-Andrew

Horrible and Hilarious

2004-11-01T02:46:00.000-08:00

The last few days have been surreal. We played Friday night in LA at an old converted bowling alley venue. It was a last minute show. cool bands and lots of cool people. it was 21+ which we're usually not crazy about but it was great. then all sorts of interesting things happened.

1. Domino (our new merch guy) spilled an almost entirely full beer into one of the bins that holds all the Ludo T-shirts. we just got a new shipment so it was completely full. it was horrible and absolutely hilarious at the same time. (deep apologies to anyone who's purchased a Ludo shirt in the last few days - we're going to wash all of them soon!)

2. outside the show on the sidewalk next to a trashcan we found a corn eaten corn cob. marshall, PMO and i paid andrew $20 to put it in his mouth for 30 seconds. again, horrible and hilarious. we got in on video tape, but i'm not sure i want to see it. i was gagging the whole time.

3. driving way from the club we saw a few people who were at the show pulled over not far from the club. we stopped. the dude in the passenger seat was puking his brains out. we gave them a gallon of water that we had in the can. they insisted that in return we take their bottle of whiskey with "at least one shot left in it." guess what? horrible and hilarious.

then last night we went to this place called the 3rd street pavillion and passed out CD's and stuff. then some of saw Team America, and others saw Ray. ray is amazing. really really incredible. (i had already seen team america... it's amazing) but seriously, see Ray. it's inspiring.

so tonight was halloween which i'd like to sum up with one story. the band that played after us had to cut their set short because their guitar player fell through the stage on one song and broke his arm. so horrible, but very, very...

-Convy

A new love

2004-10-29T20:04:00.000-07:00

So I found a new love in my life since we've been here in California, and that's the awesome city of San Francisco. Now I mean Texas is cool and all, but San Francisco...man. Ahhm in. Everything about it rocks.
So what should I be for halloween?

-PMO

Lucky Boys...

2004-10-27T05:30:00.000-07:00

LBC are my heroes. they knew we were out here w/ out shows, and they put us on their sacramento show. they didn't have to do it. they're huge. if you see them, thank them. who're the lucky boys now? www.luckyboys.com

-Convy

i'm going going back back to cali cali

2004-10-20T01:45:00.000-07:00

so we made it safely. left nyc sunday and drove straight to St. louis. then left st. louis monday at 5pm and arrived in LA at about 11 tuesday night. drove straight through. andrew is a maniac, he drove most of the way.

our last night in NYC we saw coheed & cambria do an acoustic set at the bowery ballroom. there weren't many people there, we were just a few feet away. they were awesome. sucha good band. then sparta played. i really like sparta. i was obsessed with the 1st record when it came out. i was like whatever with the 2nd one, but after seeing them do the songs live... I'm in. this was my 3rd time seeing them, and they get better every time.

i'm very tired now and need to sleep. bowling for soup was on Jimmy Kimmel. when did craig Kilborn quit? i've got to see that new ray charles movie. i'm a huge ray charles fan and i really dig jamie foxx.

bands you guys need to check out... Head Automatica - so ridiculous. heavy, dancable, poppy, rock. i don't know what to do with myself when i hear it. everything i've heard from that new Jimmy Eat World CD sounds awesome. and... www.thosmusic.com

can't wait to play some shows here. ain't no party like a west coast party...

-Convy

NY, NY

2004-10-13T14:56:00.000-07:00

i love new york so much. finally made it and brought Jim form the dog and Phil from saraphine with us....way too much fun.

today was the 1st day of CMJ (www.cmj.com) tim and andrew played an acoustic set and we met a ton of cool people. i spent a while talking to the drummer form the distillers. our mom's grew up together!

anyway we finally saw the video, and tomorrow is the big day. it's great. we're all very happy with it and can't wait for everyone else to see it. we're cooking up lots of big things out here and can't wait to tell u guys all about them.

gotta run, i'll post more soon!

-Convy

yo

2004-10-02T01:48:00.000-07:00

so i keep telling myself, i'm going to get some time and write this amazing blog bringing everyone up to speed on all that we're up to....it's not going to happen, so i'll just start typin'.

things are great. right now i'm in kansas city. we played the beaumont tonight. the crowd for us was amazing. (and this was only or 2nd time in KC!) people drove in from STL too! so amazing. all the bands were great, as they all have been the whole time, but tonight Upside really stood out tonight. they don't mess around.

anyway this tour has been incredible. we've made so many friends and met so many new people. i've been constantly reminded over the last 5 weeks how lucky we are to do what we do.

...more later

-Convy

Sleep

2004-09-14T11:29:00.000-07:00

Finally got some sleep. It seems like that's all I blog about. We played a show in Lincoln, NE then drove home through the night to STL. Didn't sleep because we were driving and then the van needed a bunch of work before the show in St. Louis Friday night. Then drove straight to Topeka after playing the show in STL (which was a blast... the show, that is) and slept for and hour or so in a Dillon's Grocery Store parking lot before playing a noon show at Washburn University. Luckily, the Prime Time Heros let us use their house to nap before the Bottleneck show in Lawrence that night. Thanks a ton guys... we wouldn't have made it through the night.

But NOW we've had 2 days off and everybody's ready to get going again. Lots of Kansas and Oklahoma this week and then Texas next week... ah, Texas... where I'll finally get the package Joe Madia sent me with his band's new demo (www.thezimmermannnote.com) which I heard online and feel it's blistering, wonderful metal. Check them out in this month's Metal Maniac magazine... there's a short on them in there somewhere... I've got to get a copy myself.

Anywho, I'm off to fix some of my equipment. See everyone soon.

TJF

monkey

2004-09-08T01:36:00.000-07:00

So the 1st week of the tour was long but a lot of fun. 7 shows in 7 days, what else could I possibly ask for? We rocked with Tantric last Monday. We were wedged in the middle of two bands that sounded nothing like us. In fact, we were the only band that did not have a member of Candle Box playing with us that night. But we still rocked faces the Ludo way because Columbia fans are always there to support the Ludorock.
The rest of the week went well, it's always fun playing with The Dog and ABJ, good people. On a side note, man, Convy's computer is nice, I enjoy typing blogs on it.
Oh yeah, so we Bar-b-qued on Labor Day, thanks to our good friend Rob Fournie (quite the cook, look out ladies) and all along the outside, back wall of this apartment were like 150 spiders just hanging out, having a good time. It was tough eating next to them, but I got through it. I hate spiders. Figured I'd go ahead and share that.
Anyway, we rocked Madison tonight, the fans here are awesome, and by awesome I mean, Awesome. Iowa City is tomorrow, followed by Lincoln, NE and then ST LOUIS. I'm sure you've read my emails about this STL show, but seriously....COME! The place is awesome and the show is going to be awesome-er. Sorry about all the awesome's, it's a good word I'm not gonna lie. If you miss the video sneak preview show then...I don't know what to tell you. So instead of making me think of something bad to tell you, you should just come.
Thanks to all who attended shows last week. Thanks to all in advance who are coming to future Breaking Fall shows, you are what makes this tour a success.
Now it's time for me to hit the sack. Goodnight.

Pmo

Ahhh.. Labor Day Weekend in Chicago

2004-09-07T09:22:00.000-07:00

So... The tour is going pretty well, so far nobody has punched anyone in the face yet which always a good sign that things are going well. After a long and hard week one of rocking I treated myself to a little thing i like to call "The Johnny Depp Sunday" which involved lots of not moving and watching back to back movies with Johnny Depp in them. Movie 1: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, cant go wrong there. Movie 2: Once Upon a Time in Mexico, this was my second viewing of the film and its decided... not a fan, sorry. And then there was Monday which was almost as uneventful as Sunday but there was a lil more activity you know Bar-B-Qing and whatnot. And now its Tuesday and we will be heading out to Madison in about an hour to begin week two of this circus. Hopefully I can find some trouble to get in to.
love
-MF

Prey for Rock n' Roll

2004-08-22T00:52:00.000-07:00

Hello there everybody,

first off, sorry we haven't blogged in a while. i know we're always saying what a busy time it is for Ludo, but honestly things have been insane lately. But, i've got a lot for you..

new york. it was awesome. we went out there, as many of you know, not really knowing what to expect with this whole video thing. we were nervous as all hell, but it really couldn't have gone any better. everyone at Fuse was so cool and supportive of everything we wanted to do. they took very good care of us. we had ridiculous hotel rooms, cars always waiting for us, the most expensive meal i've ever had in my life...they were great.
So was the video's crew. the producer was a guy named rafael estrella. he took us out to dinner the night before we began shooting to finally give us some idea of what the hell was going on. this guy is seriously great. we hung out for quite a while and listened to him tell stories about all the stars he had worked with. (we're talkin Prince, and Madonna here.) at one point i asked him to "produce me a cup of coffee." no one found this as funny as i did.
The video's director was a guy named Bruce Dickson. so cool, he even wore a kangol hat. such a director! Luckily he gave a damn about what we wanted the video to be like. he didn't make us wear any weird clothes. this guy directed the opening sequence of "Friends." I tried to tell him i thought his career was taking a real nose-dive with this whole Ludo thing at the should he should get out while he had the chance. he stuck it out, but oddly enough kept referring to Marshall as "Phoebe." anyway, these dudes were amazing and so was everyone else around us: Brenda (hair / make-up) Sandy (The "Hum Along" girl") and Steady G (the gretest steadicam operator in the history of the steadicam: i know what you're thinking - is convy qualified to make that call? the answer is no, but i'm taking the word of people i trust.... that and i saw pictures of him with Snoop Dogg and Nelly, which is good enough for me) Either way if the people that we work with for the rest of our career are as cool as these people we'll be very, very lucky. we had 2 days of shooting and then Saturday night we all went out together, played pool, drank too much (NOT ME!) and stayed out way too late. (i'm pretty sure i was in a limousine at one point.)
We've yet to see the video, but we will soon, and we can't wait for you guys to see it.

we'll be spending this week making final preparations for the breaking fall tour, as well as getting all the video stuff rolling. this tour is a huge deal for us and we can't wait. we've got new songs we're trying out, so if you make it to shows, let us know what you think. but be nice. We're working very hard to make all the shows as good as they can be - especially the Casa Loma show which will hopefully go down in Ludo history. (good ludo history) All i know is, that many shows with those bands; things are going to break, people are going to get hurt, and some kick ass rock shows are going to be played. so bring an extra face.

charlotte martin...who i'm a very big fan of, and would like to marry...just put out her 1st major label release. i've been listening to it like crazy and it's quite exquisite. check it out.

also, on tuesday of this week i lost a very good friend. He always pushed me to follow my dreams and i doubt i'd be doing what i'm doing without him. he was extrordinarily talented himself and the world will miss out on some great music that he would have made. Before i joined Ludo i brought him with me to see Tim and Andrew play some songs on their acoustic guitars at The Muisc Cafe in Columbia, Missouri. They finished the set and he looked at me and said "those guys are going to be famous." he was one of those friends that just 'got it.' please keep john millard in your thoughts and prayers this week.

anyway, i'm going to get some some sleep. like i said, it's a busy time for us. If we don't respond to emails, posts, calls, letters or whatever, it's not because we don't care. we're flakey musicians. keep writing, we WILL get back to you.

"At the end of the day, you have your familiy your friends, and your band... and if you're lucky, they're all one in the same."
This is a quote from the movie Prey for Rock n' Roll. Do not be fooled by it's sentimentality (is that a word?) or the film's clever title. it is one of the worst movies i've ever seen...i loved every minute of it.

-Convy

New Tunes

2004-08-11T00:06:00.000-07:00

All i know is, we've got some red-hot new music that i can't wait to unleash on the Breaking Fall Tour.

-Convy

Finally got to sleep... in Denver

2004-08-06T14:35:00.000-07:00

Had a great time at the show in STL (8/4). Special thanks to ninja Danson for making me vegan cookies. They were delicious. Got home late, did some work, packed, etc. and left for the airport at 4:30 in the AM for a buddy's wedding. Got to Denver around 7:40 in the AM and then met some old friends for an extremely long day. Many bars before the Rockies/Cubs game at Coors field, then bars, then bars, then bachelor party. Finally got to sleep around 3:30AM today (8/6).

Got 8 hours of sleep, but wake up to jokes about being in a band/sleeping too much. What?

TJF

Effects of last night

2004-08-05T23:58:00.000-07:00

This morning I woke up with a serious case of rock and roll neck from last night. But the pain's never felt so good...

Boozed up in Omaha

2004-08-05T23:21:00.000-07:00

so.... hello yeah its me, marshall and i'm not gonna lie i'm lil' a... drunk, as they say in the streets and i'm hangin out with some good friends in omaha, just made it to the airport this morning after a long night after the mississippi nights show which on a side note i had an amazing time and thank you all for coming out to support... and this is the point of the show where i lose my train of thought and say i will probably go to the casino and lose my ass ( however i did take some shmuck for some money on the billiards table tonight at the famed T Henry's one of my old watering holes the guy was winning all night and then we played for money and it was a different outcome ) so i will say goodnight and i love you all.....
-MF

Spider attack

2004-08-05T02:13:00.000-07:00

What a fun show tonight, hopefully everyone had an awesome time. Always feels great being back home. Please don't stop making those tasty treats, it wouldn't hurt for me to gain a few extra lb's, or many extra. Thanks to all who came out. It's almost New York time...

There was this spider in Convy's basement that almost attacked and killed me, I could see it in it's eyes. That's happened twice to me now.

-Pmo

Wednesday night / music video

2004-08-05T00:56:00.000-07:00

the show tonight was rad. thanks to all who came out.

By the way...

if i'm fat in this video, i swear to god i'm going to blame all the people who keep making us cookies!

-Convy

Well, Well, Well

2004-07-27T23:51:00.000-07:00

I've got so much to say, that i don' t know where to start. i'll just ramble. that's what blogs are for.

Just got back from Lucky Boys Confusion, catch 22, RX Bandits and Reel Big Fish... Great to see LBC. they're still up to no good. catch 22 was excellent RX bandits blew my mind. SERIOUSLY blew my mind. they didn't fit on the bill. not reall ska, not really even poppy but great, great music. thanks to LBC i got to watch from the side of the stage - so good!

and RBF obviously was so cool. awesome seeing all the ludo shirts in the crowd and all the ninjas that helped flyer after the show. everybody's so excited about FUSE. it was weird - tonight i had people come up to me and say "we've never met, but i saw you on TV." I'd be like "what?...oh yeah!"

aug. 12th we go to nyc to shoot the video. we have ABSOLUTELY no idea what the video is going to be all about. but hopefully we'll know something soon. people keep asking "can i be in the video?" right now, i don't know if I'M going to be in the video!!!

sucks we had to cancel the Midwest Music Summit. that's where we played our 1st show ever, and we were really looking fwd to coming back a year later. Also D&E and tons of other great bands are playing. but oh well.

so looking fwd to this fall. SO many shows! Breaking Fall will be our 1st real tour where the same bands play all the shows together. it's going to be a long one, but i can't wait for all the stories that are going to come out of those 6 weeks.

thanks to all of you for all your help w/ everything and just for reading this. we'll try to stay on it.

-Convy

Cocktail

2004-07-20T01:18:00.000-07:00

well.... another night i can't sleep here it is 3:25 in the a.m. and i am spending my insomnia watching tom cruise win the heart of elizabeth shue in cocktail on tbs big rock n' roll life style huh? alright well commercial break is over and i just have to find out how it ends goodnight all. hopefully.
love
-MF

Oh Wisconsin

2004-07-18T18:18:00.000-07:00

We got home at 9:45 am today. We drove straight home after last night's show in Lacrosse, WI because we've had a weird couple of weeks and just wanted to get back and have a day or two before the Warped Tour show. That show is Wednesday and we've got voting for the FUSE TV/TowerRecords "Next Big Thing: Just Add Video" Contest going on all week. Scary that we'll know who won on Friday. Hope you all are voting and telling everyone you can. This would be a very big deal.

My brain's fried. No real sleep in so long. I need Imo's and a movie.

See many of you at Warped. PLEASE VOTE!

TJF

Anchorman

2004-07-12T23:52:00.000-07:00

every member of Ludo has seen Anchorman twice. it is good.

ahhhhhh....

2004-07-11T19:53:00.000-07:00

So this week was crazy.

Being on the road, everyday something happens to you that has never happened to you before and will never happen to you again. What else could you ask for?

we saw some great bands, made lots of new friends, got very little sleep and have some great stories. some will make the tour diary...

-Convy

Independence Day eve

2004-07-06T13:04:00.000-07:00

The show went really well, everything was awesome...oh yeah, except for when the entire band left me alone with the luxury-van'ntrailor in the middle of downtown St. Louis with nothing but a broad, general direction of where the highway I needed to get to was. Did I mention I've lived in Houston, TX all my life? Luckily, a fellow friend and ninja, Christie, was there to join me who also isn't from St. Louis. 311 "Grassroots" also kept me company throughout the journey. Needless to say, I survived my adventure, thankfully. Convy was kind enough to check up on me later that night. What a guy. So whose going to watch Fuse next Tuesday at 5 pm central?

-Pmo

"Day After Tomorrow" - starring Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhall, Nature

2004-07-06T12:55:00.000-07:00

Dr. Blahblah warned the administration that this would happen - that there would be dire implications to our lax environmental practices, that it might mean the end of civilization as we know it. They turned a deaf ear, labelling his insistence as sensationalism, that he was just a hack with a political agenda. They may have been wrong, but even he didn't realize it would happen so soon - that it would happen... the Day After Tomorrow.
The film explores the hellacious scenario of a sudden, radical climate change as a result of global warming, ultimately effecting a modern Ice Age, and the human fates that such a tragedy would bring together. With cinematic cogency, it demands that we consider the consequences of our own actions. Superstorms the size of continents threaten to instantly freeze all life with apocalyptically instantaneous temperature drops down to -150 degrees, Fahrenheit. Cities are flooded, and frozen over. Hail the size of basketballs falls in urban areas. Wolves escape from the zoo and go looking for human beings to eat. With scenes of catastrophic destruction, from F-5 tornadoes levelling Los Angeles to prehistorically devastating tsunamis engulfing Manhattan as high as the 10th story of its buildings, Day After Tomorrow really makes the viewer think about how awesome it would be if that shit really happened and everyone could just watch it on TV without getting hurt or losing any personal property.
Then for no real reason (and against all odds!), Dr. Jimmy Blahblah (Dennis Quaid) decides to trek in full Arctic gear across the recently reclassified 'tundra' of New Jersey to get to his son (Jake Gyllenhall) who is holed up in the New York Public Library with some other assholes. Additionally asinine is the fact that Blahblah drags along with him his good friends and work partners (with whom he has done climatology work in Antarctica for his entire career) on this unnecessary mission, thus having someone endearing to the audience but ultimately expendable, eat it in some noble, sacrificial way. Mission accomplished: you killed your friend with brazen stupidity, Mr. Quaid. But when he gets to New York, Gyllenhall is already dead. Just kidding! But he could've been...
As it turns out, Quaid's mission proved to the presidential administration that some of the people north of the freezeline have survived, so they send rescue crews. Bullshit. They would have been sending rescue crews up there anyway. I mean are you kidding? The only reason he went on that quest was to solve some personal dependency issues his son had with him ("Dad, you came!"... "Of course I did..."...).
Then the obviously conservative republican vice-president gets on the airwaves post-tragedy and decides in the wake of all this to change his environmental policies, admitting that he and his administration had been wrong all along. That's big of him. That's like deciding to take anger-management classes after you stab a bunch of people in the face. In essence, the movie tells us, all it takes to get a Republican White House to protect the environment is to have a civilization-destroying natural uber-disaster. Thanks for changing your fake policies in that fake-ass movie, Mr. Fake-vice-president after it was far too late for that fake-mankind.
Oh and by the way, no one seemed to care when the President died in the movie. It was like an afterthought at the end of the movie: "Oh yeah, Bill, the president's totally dead and shit." The president just loafed around like an idiot the whole time, talking on the phone to his wife and whining like a little bitch. Where's Bill Pullman? Where's the Commander-in-chief flying a fighter jet out to attack big-ass spaceships and high-five his fellow Americans (including Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum)? That's the kind of America I know.
So what did I take away from this movie? Burning books is a good way to keep warm (go Third Reich!). Republicans hate science, unless there's a disaster, and then they turn into environmentalists. It takes Dennis Quaid to solve a problem. The Statue of Liberty would look awesome if it got engulfed in icy ocean. Everybody needs a paleo-climatologist to follow them around. Jake Gyllenhall loves his dad after all. A lifelong friend will always take his own life to sacrifice for the greater good of your entirely unnecessary mission. There will always be kids with cancer that need help - even during apocalypses. The homeless can teach the privileged upper-class something about life, like how to keep warm using newspaper. Blood poisoning can make you all messed up. Wolves are crazy and scary and love to devour human flesh. If there were ever a tornado in Los Angeles, Angelinos would go outside and stand in the middle of it. People in Tokyo hate getting hit in the face with giant balls of ice from the upper troposphere. A high-stress survival situation is an AWESOME opportunity to confess your love for someone (you'll totally get some!). I should stop causing global warming all the time.
Believe it or not, I liked this movie a lot more than I thought I would. I just enjoy making fun of movies. It's stupid. Go see it.

Rating: B

the 4th

2004-07-05T01:42:00.000-07:00

It was a great weekend. our show Sat. went so well, despite the rain. I got to meet Alex Chilton who was very, very cool. I didn't care too much for 5 for Fighting before the show, but i was very impressed with them. Fine, i'll say it, "Five for Fighting rocked!" Then watched the fireworks. i spent the remainder of the evening with intoxicated friends at the Sheraton downtown. My friends are idiots.

Came home the next day, took a nap, then back down to the fair to see THOS. They were awesome. Cruised the fair for a bit, took in some of the air show, then back home. Little barbeque then i lit some fireworks. the neighbors applauded.

i haven't been home on 4th of july weekend in 4 years. it was awesome. i love st. louis.

-Tim Convy
moogist

Thursday Night

2004-07-02T00:32:00.000-07:00

Just got back from seeing our friends in Thos play at Cicero's in St. Louis. Awesome.

Saturday is going to be so rad.

I too have been inundated with requests for a transcript of my every thought

2004-06-28T02:28:00.000-07:00

In response to the endless nagging from my loyal subjects, I decided to let you all know what I was thinking in the picture on the website mainpage. Quite simply, I am trying to figure out how to get my men past that imbedded group of guerrillas, so that we might get South of the 17th and repair the bridge over the River Kwai that the Hutus have damaged with their pesky blowguns that shoot danger and fake medicine. I'm also thinking that my band makes a lousy platoon, and that "somebody needs to get that damn CB working so we can call in coordinates before I sweat to death in this godforsaken jungle." I am quite impatient, and somewhat distant from my men. But they like and respect me, kind of how you like that weird uncle who does offensive party tricks. Matt Palermo is the cutest boy in my platoon.

-Andrew

Pondering...

2004-06-28T00:20:00.000-07:00

So I've had a few people ask me what it is I'm thinking about in that picture at the top of the website. Well to answer your question, I'm wondering how Chris Convy is doing out in the big city of New York. I'm hoping he's ok and is having a wonderful time working for mtv. I hope bad people haven't robbed him, and I'm especially thinking how much I miss him. It is nice having a clean room for once since he's gone, but I do miss the times he would come home and throw his awesome JCrew clothes all over MY bed and MY floor. I miss you Chris Convy. Please come back to me soon...

Pmo

Where's my band?

2004-06-27T20:55:00.000-07:00

So we got back to STL and have the night off. I thought we were going to go promote tomorrow's show down at the Motion City show - but Andrew disappeared with my buddy Joe (who's in town from Pittsburgh, PA). Speaking of Joe - he brought Ludo a guitar. A nice little epiphone semi-hollowbody. I think I'm going to go restring and clean all the guitars right now and rock the new one on Love Me Dead tomorrow...

TJF

Oma-who?

2004-06-26T23:51:00.000-07:00

I am in Nebraska right now. The band is all here, except for Marshall who is in jail. Just kidding. He's probably not in jail. He's out with old friends. Not elderly friends, but you know. I think I'm gonna sleep in T-Rock's basement tonight. It smells like an old jungle down there. I love it. Just saw Fahrenheit 9/11. The Iraq footage was particularly disturbing, and very difficult to watch. I'm glad I saw it though. There is a cricket chirping outside. T-Rock's oven is on - I know because I can smell the smells of "cooking empty oven smellness." There is a ceramic fish looking at me. How exotic it is in this state! I feel almost like I'm in Iowa! Gotta go - I smell what the Rock is cooking, and it's pizza. Go cuisines of the Italian diaspora! You da man!

-Andrew

Moon Walk - Lawrence, KS

2004-06-26T23:47:00.000-07:00

Last night i slept in a moon walk. a moon walk is a gigantic inflatable trampoline thing with nets on the sides. this particular moon walk was Tigger-themed.

i slept in the moon walk. i woke up the next morning a bit alarmed at my surroundings. i looked up and saw about 7 kids anxiously staring at me. i heard quotes like
"i want to jump!"
"we can't, there's a man sleeping in there."
"why's he sleeping in the moon walk?"
"cause he got tired of jumping."

how right they were.
last night i slept in a moon walk.

-convy

Mojo's

2004-06-25T01:29:00.000-07:00

ahhhh...columbia

ahhhh...swizzle tree

ahhhh.... El Rancho.

it was a great night, and the cardinals won.

Good Times

2004-06-23T23:14:00.001-07:00

What a weird week. Fuse calls and says they're flying us to NYC, Fanciullo puts up a brand new website which happens to be awesome, and I totally forget to re-string the guitars. And about a million other things. Thank God we get to go play shows the next few days in a row. My brain's full and I want to play my guitar.

What's a Blog?

Tim

Done

2004-06-23T23:14:00.000-07:00

well boys and girls its done. new site enjoy....
i hope everybody likes the changes, there are some new things to look for and more to come and if you havent already sign-up for the emailing list. thanks.
...now i can shower
-MF

Dip my toe to jacuzzi bebe.

2004-06-21T16:27:00.000-07:00

I must say, Fan-chu-lo does some hot website designing; let's keep it going for Fanciullo. Alright, Dodgeball starts in 35 minutes. Ahhhmm out.

-Pmo

Shamma-lamma-ding-dong

2004-06-21T11:17:00.000-07:00

Dear Diary,

I am in Ludo. I am the sing-er. I enojy to play the gitar when I'm not 2 busy 4 it! I am in bandhahaha LOL OF COURSE! ttfn

-andrew

Hmmmm...

2004-06-21T10:49:00.000-07:00

this is our new blog thing.