Posts by admin

The worst rock show billing, or so they say, is second billing to the puppet show. The Nadas might argue otherwise. I’m in the driver’s seat of Louise, The Nadas tour bus, which is parked outside Des Moines University. The boys are playing a Welcome Back picnic. And they’re none too thrilled. I picked up…

I know ya’ll think making records is all hookers and blow, but I got news for ya’: it’s hard work. Case in point: today. Jon, Justin and I got started on the new album Jon’s East Des Moines studio. And while it was fun, and productive, and we had our laughs and such, peoples, I’m…

Saturday was a head-spinning rocknroll tour of Des Moines. Sunday was all about getting my bearings. I didn’t leave my bedroom-turned-recording studio until well after noon. I wasn’t sleeping, though, I was working: recording a new song that came to me in my sleep (“Long Way Down”) and uploading my first batch of photos. When…

I am in the Walsmith’s guest bedroom on Ashby Street in Beaverdale, Iowa. The house is silent save for the ceiling fan whirling overhead, and a bird chirping just outside the window. I am some 1014 miles west of New York City, in a quiet neighborhood just northwest of Des Moines. I am barnstorming the…

Minos may control the land and sea, but not the air. And so I will fly. I will soar in the clouds, up where I am safe. My wings will be aluminum and steel, graphite and wire. I will drink jet fuel. I will travel faster than sound. I will race the dawn. And when…

I hear laughter as I climb the stairs. I knock loudly, inhale deeply, and wait. The door opens quickly. A reddish-blonde rock star stands before me and says in an Aussie accent, “You must be Benjamin, eh?” I am two hours late for Neil and Aaron’s dinner party. I have an excuse, but it’s not…

I’ve never really been one for games. Just ask my brother. He spent a childhood wrestling with my apathy. I grew bored with jigsaw puzzles, lost interest in Monopoly, and walked away from pick-up flag football. Not surprisingly, when he and his bespectacled friends began playing all-night sessions of Dungeons & Dragons, I was not…

NPR’s Carl Kasell just delivered the good news. “The extensive heat wave across the eastern third of the country is expected to break tonight.” Cool. Where I’m goin’, I don’t need any more heat. It’s Video Music Awards season at The MTV. It’s all hands on deck. It’s full court press. It’s all kinds of…