If Walls Could Talk: Alex

Socks. This is the first thing that goes through my head every morning when I wake up- socks. It's one of the simple pleasures in life, and one not often spoken of, but one that I feel I need to share with all of you here in cyberspace.  As our winter tour approaches, the topic of socks becomes the cornerstone of my preparation. As you know, most of the Dynamite Walls camp resides in sunny San Diego where the choice of what sock to wear is pretty simple, but San Diego isn't like most of the other cities we will visit this winter. I imagine we will experience some inclement weather along the way, which will not only require me to bring extra socks, but various types of socks as well. All this thought going into what socks to bring on tour may sound strange to most of you, but the condition of your sock supply can be somewhat of an emotional barometer on tour. Just think how happy you are when you rip open a bag a brand new socks and throw them on for the first time... now you're starting to understand the importance.

If Walls Could Talk: Allan

Hello Internetz,

Hot damn this has been one hell of a weekend in the Dynamite Walls camp. We had a show Friday night at the Viper Room, so it seemed like a perfect excuse for a holiday in our 2nd home LA. Actually for myself LA is currently my 1st home so it wasn't as much of a mini vacation as just having a bunch of dudes crashing in my living room, but still quite a the time having everyone together for some good ol' fun.

I started things off Friday getting a new phone and using the majority of my day figuring it out and trying to trick it out with all the necessary apps and such. How would I function without Angry Birds after all? By the way if you see any tweet typos, you have Android type correction to blame. Gonna take a lil bit to get used to. While I spent my day glued to my new HTC Incredible, the other dudes spent a good 4.5 hours on the traffic filled trek from SD to LA. Whoops. When they did finally make it up to my place, our friend Hannah was awesome enough to come over and hook Tom and myself up with some haircuts. Pretty sweet getting a hair cut in the comfort of your own home, but somehow I believe some hair got swept into my floor heater which smelled amazing when I turned that on this morning. Back to Friday though, after some cuts, food, and a few drinks we headed to the Viper Room for the show.

We always love playing at the Viper Room, which we haven't done in quite a while, but to make things even more awesome we got to share the stage with American Hi-Fi. They were amazing, the sound was great as always, and the crowd was awesome. All and all a great show in every way, even if the Viper Room has the hottest stage cuz the lights are so close to your head. They more than make up for that in every other way though. The only bad part of the night was me flattening my finger like a really thin pancake (or crepe if you will) in between some gear while reloading the van. It's still purple and not fully function, but I will survive. After the show we headed over to Red Rocks just down the street with our posse to get a couple more drinks in before we got cut off. After a very fun, but slightly blurry night we all made it home to our perspective beds, couches, and/or floors.

With everyone a little grizzled from the night before, we had a lazy little Saturday and kinda just chilled until later when it was time to head out to celebrate our buddy Wyatt from Giant State's birthday over at L Bar. Quite the fun night trying to get our friend as drunk as possible. Our fellow SD musician friend Josh Damigo even stopped by to hang out for a bit, which was awesome. After closing down the bar, me being the DD for the night, took the van home with some peeps while the others split up and continued the night with some other friends. Had we all been able to see the future, at least Paul probably would have cruised back with me cuz he ended up taking a cab that got in an accident and having to deal with all the fun that entailed. He and our other friend are both fine thankfully, but nothing really puts a damper on a night like the person you're paying to get you home safely getting in a wreck.

It was quite the fun weekend, but we all had to return back to life as usual on Sunday. Now we're back to work getting ready for our tour with Jukebox the Ghost and the Meligrove Band starting in early December! We're so excited for it, and cannot wait to get back out on the road especially with such great bands. So we're getting all the new songs ready to play and stocking up on socks and long underwear for the journey. All our San Diego friends can come see us off in style at the Ken Club this Wednesday with our good friends Helen Earth Band and Vinyl Film. It's gonna be all kinds of fun so you don't want to miss out. That's all for now. Until next time check out this clip of a new song we played for the first time at the Roxy called "Here I Come." You can also check out a video of us covering the Misfits over at our YouTube page.

If Walls Could Talk: Tom

I spend a good part of my day reading blogs/posts like many people do. Most of the time I'll be on reddit, laughing my ass off at how much funnier real people are than any sitcom (short of Seinfeild). I never, however, find myself posting my thoughts, my adventures, and I realized it's time - And this week is a great place to start.

JACK DANIELS, LA, JACK DANIELS, SAN FRANCISCO

We had got the call a month back, we were invited to play with the Shiny Toy Guns at the Roxy (LA) and Slims (SF). Sounded great, then the kicker - Jack Daniels himself was sponsoring the shows. To me it meant much more than just a show, it meant playing for a man that has done so much for me, and I can't remember any of it. I do remember parts, like the first time I ever drank his brew. It went down rough, but by the end I did a belly flop off of a lifeguard tower into the sand. This sort of awesomeness is synonymous with the Jack Daniels experience, so of course we jumped at the opportunity.

The week before the two shows we had played a Halloween show for SD radio station 91x  aboard a giant yacht in Mission Bay. There were tons of people, we went nuts, and I got tons of black makeup all over my guitar. We left the yacht show in such a rush that all of our gear was literally thrown in from every possible angle. So of course packing up for the West Coast run sucked. Good thing that my little brother Eric (the drummer) is  full of vitality and tetris know how - he is the best man for the job (I did my part too). Packing for these small runs is always hard. Do we bring a trailer? Who's gonna be the prima donna and bring two bags? Why wont the van start? We finally got on the road to hit major LA traffic, but what the hell good times await.

One of main reasons we have been looking forward to playing out lately is to try out our new material. We just finished our album, and its taken awhile to adjust to our new set. We decided to play our new song called "Here I Come" at the Roxy. Its always exciting to think about playing a new song, then half way into you realize its new to everyone else, and one tends to think it didn't come out right. Did I sing in Russian? Noone is throwing their bra's onstage, must be a shitty song... I had tried so hard not to drink from the free bottles of Jack before the show, why didn't I get the whole crowd in the green room drunk before we played?  Funny thing is after the show I saw a video of the performance, actually sounded good!

So we played our set, watched an amazing show by the Shiny Toy Guns, and took our entourage of 20 people around Hollywood - home of the $12 whiskey coke (fitting as we had just left whiskey paradise) Cinespace, the W, then off to Rich's one bedroom studio with, you guessed it, 20 people. A great time was had by all, judging by the five complaints he got the next day, all from different neighbors.

We recovered, recouped, and headed off to SF the following day. We waved goodbye to our entourage, left huddled on the floor with no blankets, grabbed some cheap coffee and headed north. 

Drivning into SF is always a sight. Its downright inspirational, and one can see instantly see how it's captivated people from around the world. It had an effect on me too, until I saw two transient guys kick the crap out of another transient guy while everyone had to watch. Family's, baby's, spandex biker guys, no one was spared. It was  "let's go check out golden gate park" gone wild. There was no shortage of "vendors" on the premise too, and unfortunately I was a bit bugged out by the whole deal. All cities have their issues, just sucks when you see it first thing...

The venue we played at was great. Very nice sound people (for once) and another great crowd. We played a good set, hung out with the Shiny Toy Guns camp, and drank from their green room with great admiration. We scoured the city for a good time after, and found it. Allan's (bass player) mom got us two rooms at the W, and we promised her we wouldn't screw anything up. We found a weird bar where the bartender's where yelling at each other, literally mad for some reason. Another awkward setting, though this time it seemed a little less intense, more funny thanks to our friend Jack Daniels. Made me think...  I could get used to this..

Finishing up the Album!!!

Hello all,

We've been super busy working on the album and getting the new songs ready, and we figured it was about time for an update on things. First, thanks to everyone that came out to the Yesterday Magazine release show last weekend. It was so much fun playing for our friends and fans again. We really can't wait to get back out and playing a lot more shows after such a great one.

In other exciting news, our album is finished being mixed! Not a moment too soon either cuz our engineer Josh was getting pretty worn out.


Just this weekend we met up at Tom's new home studio setup and got to hear the mixed album for the first time!


Tom is pretty excited about his new setup.


It also makes for a nice place to display our SDMA as well as his Frosted Krusty O's


The album sounded amazing, and it was cool to be in San Diego listening to the album being streamed from mix engineer Mark Needham's studio in LA, while on the phone with him and the label in NY all listening at the same time


We can't wait til it gets mastered and we can share these songs with you guys. We've been working very hard for a long time on it, and it's great seeing it all come together.

After a great show and album listening conference call, we took a little time off to relax with some friends


and enjoy beautiful San Diego and do some relaxing.


After some brief relaxation time it was right back to work though. Paul had some open-case surgery to perform on his Micro Korg


and the rest of us worked on getting these new songs ready to play live and preparing to get this album out. If you'd like to be the first to hear some of the new tunes we've been working at be sure to check out the 91X Halloween Boo's Cruise we're playing 10/29. Coincidentally, we also happen to be giving away free tickets to this show on our Facebook page. Help us figure out what to dress up as and you could go for free! That's about all for now. Much more news to come including details about the album and more shows and tour dates!?! Yes, you heard right tour dates! Stay tuned.

Take care,
Allan & DW

Update from recording in LA, missing the SDMA's

Hello all,

Sorry for the lack of updates. Truth is we've been working hard behind the scenes on finishing our new album. All the tracking is finished and the mixes are coming out great so far. We really can't wait to share these songs with you. The best way to show you what we've been up to and why we missed the SDMA's is by video though.



Also check out this amazing video our friend Andrew Rowley made of us tracking in the studio.


Dynamite Walls - Recording Session from Andrew Rowley on Vimeo.

That's all for now. Be sure to check back for upcoming shows and updates as we get the album finished. There's a lot more coming up!

Take care,
Allan and DW

New Video from Utah, New Single up on iTunes!

Hello friends,

Just wanted to get back to you with an update on things. We're very excited to say that our album is coming out very well, and we've even began mixing! We're so happy with how well everything has been coming together for this record, and cannot wait to share it with you.

In the meantime, you can pick up the first single "That Girl" on iTunes right now to get a first taste of the album! We're still hard at work finishing the rest of the album, but this can hold you over until we're finished.

We have started playing a few shows again though, and hope to get back playing a lot more soon. We had a great time at the North Park Music thing this weekend. So much fun to play and watch our friends. We also just played the Kimball Arts Festival in Park City, Utah. While that show was really fun, the journey to Utah was not very fun. You can watch the video of our journey below:



We were also nominated for the "Best Pop" category at the SDMA's. We're very honored to be nominated for this. You can even go vote for us here if you feel so inclined.

That's all for now. Back to work on the album and making our live set sound that good. We'll keep you updated on new news about shows and the finishing and release of more music as things go. Enjoy the first track from the new record in the meantime.

Take care,
-Allan and DW

Update from the Studio

Hello everyone,

We've been super busy lately working on our album, so we figured we share some photos to show you everything we've been up to.

We started off doing some pre production at Mates in N. Hollywood with our producer/engineer dream team of Paul and Josh.


We did a couple days of knob twisting and setup


and buckled down for some long rehearsal days getting ready to do tracking.



After a few days of preparation and working out all the songs we headed into Threshold Studios in Santa Monica to do the live tracking for the album


After a couple weeks of tracking we had the meat and potatoes in the can


Paul liked the sweet piano he got to play


and everyone else was pretty pleased with how things were sounding.



So then we headed back to N. Hollywood to Bright Street for overdubs. They have a lot of sweet gear there like old keys and amps


plenty of guitars


and some stuff so cool we couldn't even figure out how to use it


so we've been here going over everything with a fine toothed comb and finding the perfect sounds for everything



Although most of our time has been spent hard at work in the studio, we have taken a few breaks


like a quick trip back to San Diego to play the Belly Up


and another one to play the Switchfoot Bro-Am


you can't beat a view like this from the stage.



We also did some work on our golfing skills at the Los Feliz golf course


and worked on relaxing with a few beers


and worked on just plain looking good on the course


and of course worked on chilling on a yacht with some friends


It's been a lot of hard work, but we hope to have this album finished pretty soon, and we cannot wait to share it you. You can also check out some video from the studio at youtube.com/dynamitetv. We'll keep you updated on our progress, and will be back playing more shows as soon as we're done so stay tuned for more news and info.

Take care,
-Allan and DW

New news, shows, and general life updates

Hello friends,

First of all, sorry for the lack of updates recently. We have been hard at work on a lot of new and exciting things, and either haven't had much time to document it, or haven't been able to say much about what we've been working on. We promise to try and keep the updates coming a little more frequently, and let you know what we've been working on more on the regular.

With that said, we're very happy to announce that we've signed with Universal Republic Records! You may have wondered why we were so mysterious with our last trip to New York, well it had a little something to do with that. We're very excited to be working with them, and cannot wait to let you guys hear the new music we've been working on. We'll keep you updated on news with that and let you know more about our plans for hitting the road and releasing some music as those things become a little more solidified.

In the mean time while we're working on recording and such, we have several shows planned up and down California. For those in the Orange County area, we're playing with our friends Carney on May 13th. You do not want to miss this show if you're anywhere nearby. It'll be a great chance to hear what we've been working on, and Carney will absolutely blow your mind like they have done ours. We're very glad we don't have to play after them, because you really can't follow those guys. If you can't make that show, check myspace.com/dynamitewalls for more shows since we're working on quite a few right now.

We'll be posting more updates, pics, and videos to show you what we're up to and keep you up to date on all things Dynamite Walls so please check back often. For now, check out our recent visit to Escondido High School thanks to our friends at nuconrad.com.

Back from NY, New Video

Hello friends,

So we recently got back from a quick trip to New York. It was a lot of fun, we always love that city. We only had 24 hours to hang and not much free time, but we did our best to drink it in. We had a little trouble getting home though when our plane had to land after the landing gear wouldn't retract and we got stuck an extra day. It was crazy, there were even firetrucks and ambulances waiting on the runway just in case when we had to make our unscheduled landing. It was kind of a nightmare travel experience, but all and all it was a great trip though. You can check out this quick video of our travels:

We still can't say too much about our trip at the moment, but rest assured we've been hard at work making moves. Hopefully we'll have some more details, and maybe some exciting news, for you very soon. In the mean time, we're playing at the Belly Up in Solana Beach Feb. 24th w/ Republic of Letters and Tommy Graf. See you there.

-Allan