no future for anyone...

from the showbread.net forum:

[quote="CJtheSloth"]I am just very concerned:

I am hoping that Showbread will continue to serve in the same capacity they always have... I've been worried because Garrett and Landon are both gone, the other members have been dropping like flies, the raw rock productions blog seems to be almost disparaging, and the official website has gone down... I really do hope Showbread will press on. I know it's hard, but there are very many people (as evidenced by this forum) who are very dedicated and moved by Showbread.

Follow God, but I hope I'm just reading too far into these things.

CJtheSloth[/quote]

yo. let's be real...

i honestly feel as though God has much more work for raw rock to do, and the four of us are ready to work as long as he tells us to keep working. i think that if he told just one of us to keep working we'd do that as well...

thing is, when you have member changes there are always going to be questions about the stability of a band. a lot of people (not pointing anyone out here on the forum or anything) think that member changes mean declining quality or a shakey future for a band but thus far in showbread it has ALWAYS meant improvement. not to say anything bad about the guys who have left so far, but i really believe they all left because of divine reasons... whether or not God called them to something else or God just dismissed them from the band because they weren't right for the job.

to me, it's encouraging. right before our most important, message based record came out, God started yanking out members who weren't appropriate the carry that message... it means he's always working and ever faithful to the work he's doing in us.

landon and garrett were touring guys, and we love them, but we feel like it's time to tour with band members right now, not live members (unless they are programmed fem-bots...) will people say it's not the same with a different line? of course, and they'll be right... it's not the same, it's totally different, and praise the Lord! change is one of the only things (in my opinion) that keeps music interesting... and believe me, we aren't afraid of it.

to be honest, this last tour was rough. it had its good points but it was rough. i talked about it on the blog because i'd rather be straight up with you guys than give you some superficial update about nothing. so tour was rough, no big deal, it happens.

the set we have planned for this tour supporting maylene is WILD. please come see it. the support of the true RAW ROCK MILITIA means the world to us... in the end, we do what we do for Jesus, and he blesses people through it. there are people who don't like change and don't like us and i honestly couldn't care less. raw rock endures in His name. if there's one person being blessed, praise His name.

more new demos are being recorded. I think that with this new lineup, we can make something we've always wanted to but never could with previous members in the band... and being done with such a huge concept frees us up to focus on the musical approach... and man, is it RAW.

more to come... -J. Dies

take me home.

tour has become slightly uncomfortable. it is very hot. the turn out for shows is pretty bad (last night we played for the other bands on the tour and one fan...) been sleeping in the van and driving overnight a bit. today the door fell off the trailer. during a friendly wrestling match last night mike and i got in a fight and i yelled at him and he pushed me into a wall (we hugged and made up...) spirits are low. but we still laugh a lot. learning to be grateful for every little thing, even when it's no fun. it's a tough lesson.

days 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, etc. etc.

played tomfest. watched mxpx. spent a day with some cute kittens. drove to roseburg oregon and played the best show of the tour so far (thanks roseburg). chased each other around with dookie in a bag. stayed with nice/interesting folks who anointed us with oil. drove through montana and wyoming... saw the sun rise in montana while driving. played a legion hall in wyoming. drove to denver, woke up in a barnes and noble parking lot. went inside and read new avengers. got a call from bank of america about a huge negative balance, went online and looked at our account to find we had become the victims of identity theft. someone in tokyo has taken over $10,000 dollars from showbread running us a gigantic negative balance. no banks of america in denver (why?). had chipotle with new friend staphanie with compassion international, struck up a showbread/compassion team and learned a lot. none of the other bands showed for the show in denver so the venue canceled the show. apologized to kids. went to see new film by alex aja (high tension, hills have eyes) called "mirrors". ricky, patrick and i enjoyed it, landon and abi despised it. drove overnight to utah. hung out in borders and hastings. read more new avengers and an awesome graphic novel called "pride of Baghdad" (check it out). played a "no uniform" show in front of about 6 or 7 kids, had fun. drove overnight to southern california. stopped at bank of america and talked to reps, filed a claim and an investigation is underway, hopefully we will get our money back, God will provide. went to AWESOME comic shop in laguna niguel called "Nuclear Comics". got new walking dead, secret invasion, astonishing x-men and batman. landon and ricky got lost on some scooters in the wilderness and came back with road rash. we sat in a hot tub at our good friend kendall's who always takes great care of us. ate delicious tri-tip steak courtesy of kendall's grill. woke up today ready to go play the legendary whiskey a go-go in hollywood tonight for a second time.

day six.

after staying in new mexico, woke up and drove to phoenix. drank a "mega moo size" chocolate milk 5 minutes before going on stage (1 quart, 880 calories)... played and began 30 hour drive to Kelso, WA. highlights of the drive include ricky and i jamming Korn's first album, getting a spicy chicken burrito from a 24 hour del taco while everyone else was asleep and reading the new issue of Hulk (who the heck is the red hulk?) got an oil change at walmart, got more del-taco, kept driving. got to in-laws house and went to sleep. sleep feels good. got up and drove to tacoma to play a fun show. came back to in-laws to play wii fit and eat spaghetti before resting up for tomfest tomorrow.
PICTURED (top to bottom): I hit my knee climbing over the seat (notice the vein in my neck on the brink of explosion).
Vanessa finds out here wii fit age is 153.
Patrick plugs in lights while eating orange spaghetti.
vanessa rebukes artsy bumper sticker.
ricky gets ready for raw.

day three.

got to the show and found out none of the other bands showed up. promoter moved us to a venue down the street where we opened for hawthorne heights and armor for sleep. this was all well and good, but the highlight was of course was del taco. next stop: phoenix. the hottest place in the country... and introducing to the merch table, what could easily be the coolest showbread shirt we've ever had (see final picture)...
p.s. the camera with the pictures from day two went dead and abi didn't bring the charger. blame her.

day one.

eft late last night and woke up this morning to find Ricky in the driver's seat with the van wobbling out of control. Turns out an entire trailer wheel was somehow ripped from the trailer, tire, rim, lugs and all simply ripped away and vanished. weird huh?
after a fix up we were on our way and making uniform shirts to sell to the nice kids in arkansas. next stop: oklahoma city (home of Wayne Coyne and birthplace of The Flaming Lips, raw.)

Happy Birthday!

Today we wish Arnold Schwarzenegger a very happy 61st birthday.
Arnold is raw.