travel updates and rants

chiapas, mexico- june, 2002 - the idea of a travelling music collective turns to sun rising conversations and plan-detailing during solidarity work with the zapatistas (if you do not know about the EZLN, please e-mail us or seek out the info yourself, there is alot on the web)... a group of close to fifteen punx from pittsburgh, pa. found their way down to chiapas to spend close to a month educating themselves intimately about the struggle of the indigenous peeps there as well as painting murals on water tanks in the autonomous communities... murals are symbolic of their revolutionary culture... es mejor con armas...

after splitting up in mexico to travel and reconvene in pittsburgh to further plan the creation of the collective, we decide to travel across canada by hopping freight trains and sharing our acoustic music on the way...

portland, oregon- september, 2002 - kevin myers approaches vagaband featuring sweet tooth jamming an ass rippin' drum beat on his rotting shoes... records a song or two straight from the sidewalk which appears about a year later on a compilation c.d. to benefit Outside In, a youth shelter in portland... seek it out at www.nowherenearyou.com

as a child conditioned by the american system, it is a constant struggle to not be so self-centered... as a boy scout i was taught how to lead well... i can acknowledge now these things that i want to change but action... action...

playing acoustic on the street becomes an interesting way to practice while at the same time make a dollar for food and distribute information... so we go down the west coast of the united states doing this until we start living in los angeles...  for a few months we make some electric music while doing dishes at the amazing LUNA SOL cafe down by MacArthur Park...

venice beach, california- janruary, 2003 - kid from kid and play approaches vagaband around sunset on a sunday and buys their collective soul for ten dolllars to put their white talent up to ridicule on some t.v. show that none of the collective will ever see.... it's called "showtime at the apollo" ... test number one to see if we will sell out - failed...

february 2003- under the name fear is the mindkiller... tour through mexico hitchhiking without equipment except for acoustic instruments... sharing a few days in each town with the kids there before the shows to make the shows more meaningfull... it is quite different when there is a strong connection between the bands and the audience... the tour was also designed to get us to a number of different areas of highly concentrated rebellion to give us personal accounts as well as possible ammunition for writings to distribute back in the heartland of imperialism...  The tour included shows in Mexicali, Hermosillo, Ciudad Obregon, Culiacan, Guadalajara, Mexico City, Cuernavaca, Oaxaca, San Luis Potosi, Saltillo, Monterrey, and Matamoros.

Just a few months before celebrating its fifteenth birthday, the 500 family land occupation just below the US/Mexico border known as Maclovio Rojas lets the VC crew roll out upon the floors of it aguascalientes... find follow up info at http://webnetarts.com/socialjustice/maclovio.html

babs - winter 2003 - as my fellow vagabonds journey making music throughout mexico, i endure frigidness of pittsburgh  to confusedly finish school and give support to one of our other collectivesses, courtney, who is pregnant.... it is sometimes difficult communication through technofake computers and short phone calls to keep up with what they are doing, but my time here in pittsburgh has given time to reflect on the responsibilities of love and has sparked an interest, through being courtney's birth partner, in becoming a doula..... i look forward to working with los vagabondos again upon their return to this often nightmare nation.......

joy- some of our mates from the iron city met us in mexico city after they finished work with a bicycle power group in gautemala... they handed us a single sheet of instructions on how to turn an old bicycle into a bike powered blender to make smoothies and crush veggies, etc... well, one evening as the sun went down over oaxaca city, me and martin were talkin to our friend's momma and she said we should try to make a bike powered water pump for her well that was giving us our drink for that week before our show at her house... it took a couple mishaps and extra days than we thought but just minutes before i had to leave to hitch up to d.f. to meet the rest for our next show, the water started gushing... my work mate would not let me start pumping... it was such a success we had to get literally soaked by it and through the whole night of hitching i was chivering with smiles... martin was to make some final adjustments after i left and he said he already had three other families in mind who could use the same thing... bike-power can be used for so many things, check out more at www.pedalpower.org

We stayed over for a few days at the "Ocupacion Che Guevara", which is on the campus of Mexico City's famous university UNAM.  In the spring of 1999, the students went on strike after tuition increases and privatization were threatened.  The strike was a very important event in Mexican resistance, and it was during this time that UNAM's old auditorium was occupied.  It has been continually used as a radical community space on campus and is current occupied by anarchist who are running a free school, a weekly free eatery and a concert space...  click here for more...

When we would arrive into a town, we were instantly treated with dignity and asked what we needed... in san luis potosi, cesar from the fabulous grind experience of the name ABSOLUCION (www.absolucion.cjb.net), asked us if we wanted to do an interview at a local radio program they did... it was fast paced but was interesting to actually see a radio station with open doors to community kids wanting to say their piece... most shows used collectivized equipment... this was good because touring bands can take the bus with just their guitars or cymbals... this was bad because sometimes the town only had little amps that did not give the bands the credit they deserved... each show was completely different than the one before... ciudad obregon had the show in a baseball field with an AC/DC sized sound system and a circle pit of just early teenage grrls... yeah!! there were bar shows in the bigger cities and nationalist skins in mexico city that stole our spot on the show line up... almost everyone screens patches or makes a fanzine and anarko-punk is a threat much stronger than alcoholism... at one show we started by saying "we are from the u.s. but we are not americans..." and received some great supporting criticization of this statement... we studied spanish and were able to make a lyric sheet in spanish to pass out and also explain our songs in spanish... to this the response was great thanx because many bands do not attempt this and are some times only considerate enough to get a translator for tour... i suppose for some bands just the music is important to share but this is the types of shows that seem strange... sometimes the crowd would call "culeros" (assholes) if we stopped and they wanted us to play more... i guess it is common that if a band does not have more songs then they just play their songs a second time but we veered away from this...

click here for an article about some thoughts birthed from the tour in mexico...

atenco rebellion... click here

after mexico there was some sort of readjustment to the united states, including arriving at a punk party in texas where we asked to borrow equipment to play since there was only one band playing and were simple refused without any care...

some time is passed in pittsburgh planning our next phase of life, collective and otherwise...

the moment / fear is the mindkiller... summer 2003 "the smell of punk to come" tour... i can not express the joy... i can express appreciation for a band like the moment who continuously plays from within, which is forever that which is evolving the punk to come...

the moment

fear is the funky magician...

after the short four show tour (thanx to kids in durham NC, baltimore, and philadelphia) with the moment, we found ourselves crossing the border in a variety of methods to make it to montreal to join in the protest against the WTO, where an excellent pirate radio program running specificly for the protest, let us jam an acoustic song over the reclaimed airwaves... after montreal we divided... later to rejoin in pittsburgh for some important electric shows and planning for europe...

august 15th, 2003- joy thinks that adventures alone amount to arms stretching to admire my partners in crime... screams "where are you fellow agents of scumfuckery???" and confesses to sister the best part of travelling is that you can kill yourself every night and recreate yourself every morning...

click here for an article called "punx in pigz clothin" writin about events occuring during our lives in pittsburgh...

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