Flew back to Dallas from Seattle last night, exhausted and happy with the past week of shows with Shearwater (Denton - LA) and The New Year/David Bazan (LA - Seattle). Made great friends with both the Minus Story and David, all of whom are wonderful, gracious, hilarious people.

Much fun lounging at the Hotel Congress after a 15-hour drive from Austin. No so much fun driving around LA to buy strings and cables. Great turnouts for the shows, lovely, if long drives. Late, late nights catching up with the amazing Chris Weber & family. Introduced the New Year to the glories of the GPS. Bubba bought a cellphone. Hell froze over.

Too tired to type any more, but I flipped a pretty impressive amount of vinyl and CDs on this trip, with more stuff waiting for me at home from Aquarius and Forced Exposure. Itemized, geeked-out lists to come. Some photos after the “more” thingy.

Austin, TX w/ Shearwater:

The Minus Story in L.A.:

Chris Brokaw and John Vanderslice:

Ian Bjornstadt and Clark Vogeler:

The New Year and David Bazan with The Tex-ass ‘nut from Voodoo Donuts, Portland, OR: