the canoes kick ass

we played with a band in chicago called the canoes last winter. for whatever reason, i didnt realize how much they kick ass until now. thats why you should listen to this song. then listen to that whole record. then listen to their other albums, make sure you listen to American English, too. 

this isnt one of those “these guys are my friends so listen to them” kinda deals. we kinda hardly know these guys, only know em from one show in chicago almost a year ago. i just cant get over this dudes lyrics, or his melodies, or just how much they kick ass. thats really all, theyre just a fucking awesome band. 

i think i might start posting more about the awesome bands we play with

itchy hearts 

“I Love the Woods” – Sneak peek at the new album!!!

sup yall?!?

here it is: a little look into the new album. its called I Love The Woods 

hope ya like it. help out our kickstarter here if you wanna hear the rest of the album!

itchy hearts

Videos from Tour!

HEY DUDES!!! 

 

Here are some videos from our last trip. 

 

All of these songs will be on the new album. Pledge to our Kickstarter if you like em! 

 

Photos from Recording.

So, we’ve actually recorded a good chunk of the new album already. We went down to Virginia Beach mid-august to record drums, guitars, bass and vocals. Our homie Ben Goldstein brought along his mobile recording rig and we set up a little studio throughout my pop’s beach house. We were there for a week and it was a blast.
For those of you curious about why we’re raising money to record an album when some of its already been recorded, there’s still so much to be done! Not only are we raising the money to pay for the engineer, we still have to mix and master it, actually produce physical copies, which will cost a lot!, and so much more. Here are some photos from recording, but make sure to come back to see some videos soon too.

Yes, Caleb makes that face EVEN when we’re recording.

harmonies for a new song tentatively titled “World”

Benny Goldstein, our recording engineer, drinkin the Freddy Cobb classic, Bud Light.

Stinker knows these songs better than anyone by now

thinkin real hard like

More pictures will come soon! We’re already a quarter of the way to our goal, we’ve raised $1,515 out of the $6,000, so we’re ahead of schedule, even if only slightly. Thanks so so so much to everyone who’s donated, its really incredible to see how much support we’ve got out there. If you’d like to share our Kickstarter through Facebook, Twitter, or email, make sure to use this link: “http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1163384895/itchy-hearts-new-album“. We really need all the help we can get on this, and we’re doing so amazing already, so lets keep the momentum up!!

We need your help!!!

So our Kickstarter is finally up! We’ve been working on it for a few months and now we’re ready to raise some dough! We are really excited about this new album, and if we raise the $6,000, we’re going to to put out some Itchy Hearts vinyl for the first time ever!  For those of you who don’t know about Kickstarter, its kind of an online fundraising website, but some people use it more so as a pre-sale device. If you donate $10 to us, you get a digital download, $25 and you get physical copy and a t shirt, $35, you get it on vinyl. Rewards increase in value as pledges increase, and we’ve got some pretty cool rewards, so check it out.Click here to help us out! 

Anything anything anything at all helps tremendously. 

Thanks for all the help yall, 
Andy 

Nashville, Memphis, Denver

We couldn’t find a place to stay in Louisville, so we decided to drive through the night to Nashville. We arrived at our buddy Reid’s place at 5 in the morning, and all passed out immediately on his couches. The next day we ate at Ben’s favorite restaurant in the universe, Pepper Fire, played some songs in Reid’s backyard, drank some beers, and eventually left for the Zombieshop to play the show with the 1020’s and L Origins.

The Zombieshop is a moped garage venue that where Reid Magette and the 1020’s released their new ep “Shrine of Youth”, so we figured we’d play there this time around. 

These guys, are by far one of the best bands we’ve played with in the 4 years we’ve been touring. They’re called L Origins, hopefully they’ll release some recordings soon!

After our set was Reid Magette and the 1020’s. Reid’s been writing amazing songs for years, but its amazing to finally to see him perform with an awesome lineup. Listen to his new EP here.

Driving to Memphis

Mosaic House in Memphis

Empty Orchestra

Nipple

After the show at the Mosaic House, we decided to drive through the night to Denver. It was supposed to be a 17 hour drive, but took us about 22.

Always sleeping

New sleeping spot

More Nipple

We found some trains

We arrived in Denver at 10pm and drove to a Wal Mart to get some sleep.

 

Swimmin

Colorado knows whatsup

New friends at Mouth House

Luther

 

Luther’s Cup

 

new friend eddie and his band sparkler bomb

Illinois, Kentucky

Upon arriving at Firehouse Pizza in Normal, Illinois, Caleb and Ben started doing yoga. Couldn’t tell ya why, never seen either of em do yoga before. 

Our buddy Vince from an awesome pop punk band called Horrible Things played a solo set. There was a 40 year high school reunion going on at Firehouse that night, and Vince gave them a great show.

This guy’s set was pretty amazing. Kyle is in a local band called These Old Ghosts. He’s got some really great songs and and an amazing voice. 

Hula Hoopin during Antique Hero’s set.

can’t get enough

caleb and ben

Zak, the main man at Firehouse. Always so good to see him.

Little snake bite emergency at the hospital. Serious foot pain for a couple days, but everything is cool now!

Night drivin is the best. On our way to Louisville on July 15th

Mojo Filter. These guys were fucking awesome

Makin out with Cameron

The usual suspects at our Kentucky shows

kinda diggin this pic

We’ve made some really great friends in Kentucky, and after the Lexington show we went back to their spot to stay for the night. Our buddy Gus found a bottle of Amsterdam gin, but I don’t quite remember what happened after that.

We made a friend in Lexington who brings us moonshine to our shows. This time we bought 3 gallons. Should last us til New Orleans if we’re lucky.

Rain

From Lexington we went to Louisville. Being the impeccable tour booker that I am, I decided to book us in Louisville on the same night that Wilco, Neko Case, and a bunch of other bands that were part of Forecastle Music Festival. Ironically, we drove past the festival on our way to the venue. Kinda reminds me of one time when we were playing Gainesville at a venue that was across the street from a Plain White Tee’s show. We have a tendency to make up bullshit reasons for why no one is at our Sunday shows.

ALL of those people woulda been at the Itchy show if it wasn’t for Wilco, right?

Louisville kinda looks like Richmond, Va

We did some Laundry. Had to do it 3 times to get the mold off our clothes. It was kinda gross. Lessons learned: never put your wet swimsuit in a plastic bag with a bunch of other clothes and then leave it for 5 days in a hot trailer.

@ The Rudyard Kipling, one of the coolest spots we’ve found in Louisville

Creepin

The Yugos are kickass

Hangin out with Ashley, bassist for The Debauchees, a cool Singer/Songwriter -ish Punk band. Dunno if that makes sense

We left Richmon…

We left Richmond for Morgantown, West Virginia. We’ve played Morgantown several times and its one of our favorite places to play for a couple reasons. At some point Cameron found a statistic that said Morgantown drinks between 1%-2% of the nation’s alcohol per  year. That’s one. The other is because the people there are so incredibly nice. We always know that when we go to Morgantown, we are going to be surrounded by amazing people who are always looking to have a good time.

christine can’t wait to get to morgantown

Merrimac Manor

The one and only Clifford Moul of the Merrimacs

just another cool pic from Christine

Wisdom of Owls gettin down

party time

things got weird and we started playing with Cliff and Nate’s old G.I. Joes

winner for the most dramatic photograph of a G.I. Joe Doll award goes to Christine

We left the next morning for Columbus, Ohio. We’ve never played as a full band in Columbus, so in a way, this felt like the beginning of the tour to us.

Songbirds Kickin Ass

Weight of Whales

neat hair bro

New Tooth is so fucking sick

Our original plans were to leave Columbus for Bloomington, Indiana, but our show got cancelled there last minute, and we had to come up with a plan. We drove west for a ways until we passed a sign for Cowan Lake State Park. Our original plan was to make the video for our kickstarter campaign, which we’ve been putting off for months. Needless to say, that didn’t happen. We arrived to Cowan Lake and swam and drank and made a fire and swam and drank. And we did some other stuff. It was awesome.

you better believe it

cruisin in the hellement

swimmin time

we made a fire

ben bein a bear i think

chillaxin with a ghost

caleb playin some dashboard confessional

gettin weeeird

Tomorrow we leave for Normal, Illinois, to play Firehouse Pizza and Pub!!

Tour Kickoff, Brooklyn, Philly, Richmond

I got a feeling I’m going to be doing a lot of photo blogging with Christine’s photos rather than writing. She always takes amazing photos, so you’ll be seeing a lot of those from this trip.

We started our tour off at our friend Neha’s loft in Brooklyn with Bears in a Temple for Midgets and 1881. 1881 are our friends from Bayport, Long Island, and they played with us in Brooklyn, Philly, and Richmond. They play 60’s and 70’s inspired rock and roll and but way loud. Rob writes some of the best fucking songs I’ve heard in a while. They don’t have any recordings up yet, but once they do, I’ll be posting about them.

Then we went on to Philly and played at Kung Fu Necktie.

Rob and JP of 1881

Kung Fu Necktie is the shit and so is everyone who works there. We’ll be back soon.  After the show we went to our buddy John’s place in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. John is one of the best dudes we’ve met on the road and in an amazing folk band called A Fair Few.

He had a hot tub!

Some homie named Max hopped in naked and took the party to a new level. Then the cops came. Then we walked to a lake a couple miles away and swam. Then we went to bed. Then we woke up and jumped on the trampoline and then drove to Richmond!!

Trampolines are fucking awesome

Hangin out with our buddies Sci and Glenn outside the Yerb in Richmond

1881, Itchy Hearts, and former Itchy bassist Reid Magette

Ben and his new friend VT

Wolf//Goat kicked so much ass

Joe Aaron Andy Margie. so good to be back in richmond

friends all over the place

Pantsless Pendleton

Tomorrow we leave for Morgantown, West Virginia to see our friends The Merrimacs.

Itchy Hearts with Toothaches this Thursday!

We’re gonna be doin a show with some of our best buds The Toothaches this Thursday at the Local 269 on Houston St in Manhattan. Tickets are $8 in advance and $10 at the door. Click here to buy them!