Capybara

Oh, hi guys.

We are in Austin, at Epoch Coffee. I think we’ve been here for at least two hours a day for the last five days. When I last left you, Jared was back in Kansas City, but he came back a few weeks ago. Since then, we’ve had some pretty great things happen.

1. New Mexico treated us so well. We had one of our most amazing shows on tour in a little DIY venue called Heaven and Hell in Albuquerque. Imagine about sixty people jammbed into a mediumb-sized living roomb. Everyone was dancing and freaking out and loving it and we fed off of that energy because it soothes our souls and we also gain power from it, like in that movie Ravenous. For one week in college, Rennie from Range Life watched that movie about twice a day. But that’s besides the point! The point is that the Heaven and Hell show was great and we met a lot of lovely folks there. Also – we were the oldest people at that party. Seriously.

2. We went to a restaurant in Albuquerque (Frontier) where they serve Pace salsa with tortilla chips. Wow.

3. We had a show at the Equinox in Las Cruces, NM which was intimate and fun. Prior to that show, we had a great time hanging out with Ryan at KRUX college radio. We played a little acoustic set (Capybara’s first!) and then Mark made it into a lovely video, which can be found below:

4. We had two shows in one night in Santa Fe: the first was at the incredible Meow Wolf, and the second was at a house called Manhattan (I think). Meow Wolf has changed a lot since we last visited (in March). Since then they’ve built this amazing structure that “looks as though a toy box was spilled” as one of my friends put it. Bands perform INSIDE said structure, which you can see below:

That second show, by the way, was so amazingly fun. We played a hybrid acoustic/electric set that was really percussion-heavy. You couldn’t really hear any of our vocals (no mics) but that didn’t stop about twenty loyal Santa Feans from dancing like mad. I think they were all St. John’s students. Thanks, guys, we miss you already!

5. We played at the Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe for two nights, and it was great. We continued to flesh out a quieter acoustic/electric set, and people seemed to dig it. Small crowds, yes, but it was lovely just to play in such an awesome space run by such incredibly passionate people.

6. And then, as quick as we came, we left New Mexico after getting one more meal at the incredible Counter Culture Cafe. What was supposed to be a fourteen-hour drive to Austin became an eighteen-hour ordeal that involved dissed mixtapes, passing dozens of dead deer on the side of the road, $8 crepes at IHOP, unsuccessfully listening to a book on tape, and sleep shirts that were so long they reached Dave’s knees.

7. But we made it! To Austin, that is! Aaaaand we couldn’t be happier. What a great town. I’ve always said, if I had millions of dollars, I’d own a summer house in Portland and a winter house in Austin (obvious joke: where would your spring house be? Williamsburg? And your fall house in Athens? Get it? HIPSTERS LIVE IN THOSE PLACES).

We had our latest-starting show ever (12:30) at a club called Momo’s on Wednesday and then drove down to Houston on Thursday for fajitas at Pappasito’s and a show at Super Happy Fun Land, which is about as amazing as DIY venues come. And there was a kitten named Tofu there! And I beat Jared (or somebody) at a game called Groove It Up (or something). Also, we realized that none of us know how to play Pick Up Sticks. Someone enlighten us in the comments, please.

8. Friday we went to the famous Stubb’s BBQ here in Austin, mostly out of nostalgia. You see, when we lived in Taos for three months (recording Try Brother), we ate basically the same food every week. Kosher hot dogs, deli sandwiches, pasta (usually on Wednesdays – Lost night!) and Stubb’s BBQ sauce. Needless to say, the restaurant didn’t disappoint. And tonight (Saturday) we are playing at The Mohawk for the ATX Converge Fest with a bunch of other sweet bands.

9. Which brings me to an important point (why am I still numbering these paragraphs)? Tonight’s show at The Mohawk is Capybara’s last pure venue show of this tour. It’s been eleven weeks, and we have one more to go. After tonight, all of our Austin shows will be at The Dobie Theater (which is a movie theater), and then we’ve got a Dallas house show and a show in Houston at a restaurant/venue. I can’t believe we’ve finally come to the end of this tour! Three months in tour-time is basically three-years in regular time.

10. It’s fitting that the most important thing we’ve done all tour is going to happen during our last week. Tomorrow. We. Are. Going. To meet. A real capybara. His name is Caplin Rous, and he is possibly the most famous capybara on all of YouTube. Here he is eating a popsicle:

Yeah. We’re going to be doing that tomorrow. It just so happens that Caplin and his owner live just outside of Austin. We are going to film the whole meeting and try to play him a song and hopefully that footage will eventually make it to your eyes.

Okay! That is basically everything I am excited about or everything I have been excited about. I hope this tides you over, internet. We miss you. No, not you, internet. We see you plenty. We miss everyone else. Especially these people:

Hi, blog. It’s Darin.
I know, it’s been a while, hasn’t it? That’s my fault.
I’m sorry. Here, I brought you this. Well go ahead, open it!
Yes, it is what you think it is: a new blog entry.

I’m glad we’re talking again, too.

OKAY. So. Capybara has returned to glorious Taos, NM. This is where we recorded Try Brother back in January, February, and March of this year. As always, it’s gorgeous here, and for the second day in the row there’s not a cloud in the sky. We’ve been eating incredible enchiladas and feasting our eyes on those perfect gradients of southwestern sunsets. We’re staying with my lovely Mom and it’s just great. Except for the fact that Dave is really sick and we had the lamest Halloween ever. It wasn’t lame due to Taos or a lack of things to do, it was just lame because we are a lame band who would rather buy a bunch of candy and beers and watch a Thai horror film than drive to a sweet party somewhere.

We played in San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Petaluma, Los Angeles and San Diego. The San Francisco show was amazing, one of the best on tour. Santa Cruz made me angry, only because I didn’t go to college there (it should really be called UCTS – University of California: The Shire). Petaluma was great because we got to meet more of Dave’s family (uncle, aunt, cousins) and the weather was perfect. We stayed in Los Angeles for a week, setting up shop at the incredible Downtown Independent Theater (right next to The Smell) and playing sets before and after the various Range Life screenings. Oh! And a Capybara show was broken up by the cops for the first time. Naturally, it was the LAPD. We were playing on the roof of the Downtown Independent and about seven minutes into our set the cops showed up because there were some apartment buildings that were relatively close and it was 11pm. Oh well.

We moseyed down to San Diego on that Friday to play the last EVER show at a DIY venuehouse called The Habitat, then it was back up to LA to play at the Echo Curio. Then came Vegas. Short story: We didn’t do great. Gambling-wise, that is. And weather-wise. It was so windy that they shut down the pool. Seriously, Vegas?

The Capybara crew has been taking a well-deserved break for the past few days, returning to beautiful Taos, New Mexico where they recorded Try Brother earlier this year.  Mark reported last night that they’ve been stuffing themselves full of green chile and working on their acoustic chops for the next leg of the tour, which resumes TONIGHT in Albuquerque at Heaven & Hell!  Come and check it out!

Or, if you’re far from the desert, Capybara will be making an in-studio appearance tomorrow evening at KRUX in Las Cruces and playing the acoustic songs they’ve been working on this week.  You can listen tomorrow live via THIS LINK, and they should go on around 4pm MST!

And watch out, Texas:  Capybara will soon be taking Austin by storm.  Check out their updated tour dates here and stay posted to Twitter for additions!