jordan myska allen

Achachay! UPDATE JULY 2012

A MESSAGE FROM RYAN GREENBLATT, DRUMMER ON BEHALF OF ACHACHAY!

Hello to all of my Achachillians! I hope each and every one of you is having an amazing summer and loving life!

Over the past few months Achachay! has unfortunately decided to disband. It is with a very heavy heart that I relay this information to you, and I can only say that I am extremely grateful for all of the support we received over the years from you guys. We are NOTHING without our fans and I felt like we had some of the best fans in the world.

We all appreciated the countless shout-outs, the attendance of concerts, feeding us on the road, giving us shelter and places to sleep on the road, the super-fun party times, the excellent and enlightening conversations, and all of the just general good-vibes that we got from you guys over the years. I humbly and earnestly submit this message in the hopes that you can feel my deep appreciation and gratitude.

A few short things to accompany this:

1. Look forward to getting similar posts from Hooch and Jordan, so they can share what they want to say to all of you.

2. Would anyone like free Achachay! swag? We have extra t-shirts, cds, koozies, sunglasses etc that I am happy to give away if anyone wants anything just contact me on FB or on twitter (@theBlattAbides) and we can arrange a way for you to get it no matter where you are in the world.

3. I am now currently playing in another band and I would appreciate you showing us the same love you showed Achachay!, or at least giving us a chance! We are called Southbound Drive and you can check out all of our tunes here for free: http://soundcloud.com/southbounddrive, at our facebook page www.facebook.com/southbounddrive, or you can go here to download a FREE copy of our EP Agnes: southbounddrive.com/Agnes.zip. I also want to make clear that I did NOT leave Achachay! for this band, and this had no bearing on the disbanding whatsoever.

So thanks again, from the bottom of my heart, and with all of my love, body and soul.

Sincerely,

Ryan Greenblatt

Pagosa Springs and the Hot Springs!

We make our way south from Telluride earlyish. I use the word ‘early’ loosely… When we are on the road we rarely get on the road before 2 pm so leaving around noon is early… We get to Pagosa about 5 and the sun is just starting to go behind the mountains. We have a few hours to kill and Pagosa Springs is known for its hot springs. Everytime we mention Pagosa people say, “Did you visit the hot springs?” and until now we always said “no”.. But I can now happily say we have been to the hot springs and it was just what a back that’s been sleeping on floors needed! When I heard springs I expected some sort of rock landing with water spewing out of the ground… But it was really nothing like that… It was a nice resort type place. They had tubs indoors as well as outdoors on the roof. The roof was pretty crowded but it’s still sweet to check out the sunset and stars over the mountains while soaking in the tubs filled with spring water. After a couple hours of soaking our tired bones we head to the venue. The Bear Creek always takes care of us. The staff there is super friendly and the locals are awesome too. We play a long 4 hour set and then we hit the road to head back to Austin. That does it for the Colorado tour. It’s been a blast as always and if we weren’t heading back to Austin it would be hard to leave! 23 hours and we are home! Hooch over and out!

Salida: A last minute show to remember!

Today we are traveling from Preblo, CO to Telluride, CO. We got a late start and didn’t get out of town until about 2 PM. We have a night off so we decided to stop in Salida to see a friend of ours Ty. We met Ty through couchsurfing a couple years ago and have been tight ever since. We also decided since we had the night off we should see if we could find a place to play. We hit up a couple of bars and they were all very receptive to live music but were booked. There was also a place with a patio that we could play on. But playing a show in 20 degree temperatures didn’t sound too appealing… The last place we popped in was the Tenderfoot. Ryan did the talking and the Bartender Mary was more than happy to let us play. We decided to go have dinner and make a decision about whether we were going to play a show or drive across an icy mountain pass after dark. Looking back now, it seems like the obvious decision was to play the show… The show was awesome. We had the bar packed all night. People were dancing and having a great time just like we were! It was another one of those times where we are on tour and randomly things come together for an awesome night of music. We will definitely be back in Salida. A big thanks to the Mary’s at Tenderfoot for having us play. It was such a blast!

Back in Boulder!

After our 16 hour drive from Austin to Boulder we had about two and a half hours before our show in Boulder. We took our time, set up, ate some dinner and drank some coffee. We were playing back at the Darkhorse, at least our 4th time. But this show would be different.

Us and the In Due Time Guys

I felt surprisingly well, even though I was running on only a few hours of sleep. I didn’t even get energy-drink’ed out. Boulder is always a fun show, but tonight we were bringing a surprise with us: a horn section. Two of our friends from the band In Due Time, Kyle and Tony, brought their Sax and Trombone and ripped through about 15 tunes with us. It was fucking AWESOME! I really can’t stress enough how well it went. Sometimes we manage to get all of our Boulder and Denver friends to bring out their friends and come party with us in Boulder, but this time only a handful of our friends were able to make it. The horns took care of the rest: we had people dancing, moving, grooving, and LOVING the music. It was fun, and re-energizing just when we needed it.

So if you haven’t checked out In Due Time yet, please go to their website here: https://www.facebook.com/induetimefunk and give them a listen…you will not be disappointed! Til next time Dark Horse!

Overcoming with Optimism on the road to Winter Park

The booking game is a crazy world… we finally confirmed the show that was supposed to happen on December 10th exactly ten days before it was to occur. On December 9th, I got a call from the booking agent saying that their email account had gotten hacked and he never confirmed the show, so we were SOL.

Luckily, we have been through this before and applied the Achachay! spirit. Focus on the solution, see the opportunity and make the most of whatever is in front of your face. After a few phone calls, it became apparent that nothing would happen that night. I’d have to wait until the morning.

We woke up at the usual time and I started calling all the bars in Winter Park. At first I got the usual run-around, but when I mentioned “We’re an awesome Austin TX funk rock band that got our show cancelled, do you want us to bring you an awesome show TONIGHT?” or something similar, they get things moving.

The Winter Park Pub came through in the 9th inning and opened their arms… not just a place to play, but a decent last minute guarantee, free food, free drinks. The show ended up being packed and well received. The staff was cool, and we’ll definitely be back! Even though Hooch and I both felt a little sniffly and hoarse, we played a top notch performance and had a great time busting out some covers we haven’t done in a long time. We closed off a three day weekend of 4-hour-a-night performances with gusto and energy.

We’ve been shown time and time again to keep the faith. In spite of whatever circumstances life throws your way, maintain an optimistic outlook while working hard to achieve whatever your objective is. Almost every time we’ve done this, the result is better than what we expected from the original plan. Even if it isn’t better, the experience is beautiful.

To top it off, we all three got to sleep in individual beds at the family place of a buddy I studied in Ghana with. We got to meet some of his family and catch up on six years of traveling, craziness, and life. All in all, a phenomenal day.

Q Spot Good Times Rock n’ Rooooooooollllllll!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rockin' "Choice" at the Q Spot

In our last week on the past tour we played our favorite bar in Enid AMERICA, the Q Spot. We love the Q Spot because David, the owner, and his family take great care of us every time we play there. He also has a really nice, large stage for us to tear up, and we always have an excited and attentive crowd.

The show itself was great and well attended. We played a good long set and rocked out as usual. The night progressed to our new favorite hangout: the Lounge located in the Ramada Inn in Enid. The Lounge also has these sweet koozies (not sweeter than ours though!) that feature a “lounge lizard” in a martini glass….with a martini in hand. I really enjoy those koozies, and for those of you who know me, koozies in general. On this night, though, we found out that the bar only intends for you to use their koozies in the bar, and not actually take them with you when they give you a beer with one on. This is stupefying to me as they are the perfect way to promote a MOTHER-F’ING BAR, but as they say: to each his own.

We will be back and rockin’ the Q Spot again in the near future!

Blog catch up: Pagosa Springs

We’re almost done chronicling our last tour… Just about to get into the last week. This is a stream of consciousness post…

On Friday October 14th we woke and drove 7 hours from Denver to Pagosa Springs. We’ve done this drive twice before and its pretty sweet, but this time was more ridiculous since we had already driven 12 hours from Reno to Moab, and eight hours from Moab to Denver the previous two days. Both of those shows were four hour shows too. We’re putting in our 10,000 hours I suppose, although we’ll be better drivers than players at the end of it

The show was fun. The Bear Creek Saloon always has a new crowd of people and we never know what to expect. The funny thing about this time was that we didn’t have a place to stay. Normally, we just drive home to Austin because Pagosa is often our last stop, but this time we were playing Creede the next night, and its only 1.5 hours away.

We only took one break so sourcing a sleeping spot proved fairly troublesome. Luckily Liza saved the day. What would we do without her? She befriended a traveling troupe of friendly dudes traipsing across the US and they offered the floor of their hotel.

The great stories happened at the afterparty, as they are often wont to do.

Ryan and Liza were tired, so they headed back to the hotel. Hooch and I were pumped to check out this crazy after hours secret club run by a peaceful biker gang… that our friend Justine told us about.

The place was really chill. It was kind of what you’d expect: a warehouse with a pool table, music, dancing, and “free” drinks (you are expected to tip). I got invited to play a game of poker, so I got immediately sucked in. It was sweet. I played it really cool and knocked everyone out over the course of the next three hours until I was heads up with the host. At that point it was 6:30 AM so we decided to split the pot and call it a … morning.

Hooch and I managed to find a ride back to the new acquaintances’ hotel. We stumbled around the complex toting a bottle of whiskey, searching for the right room. Upon entering, we were surprised to find that sleeping bodies covered almost every single surface in the room. I managed to curl up in the corner between the wall and the bed, but Hooch would have had to sleep halfway in the bathroom. Pretty funny situation. Last thing I remember before passing out was that he was eating a leftover Subway sandwich, both in the bathroom and in bed since they were one and the same.

Of course it never ends on the road. The party goes on. Our gracious and generous hosts had to check out early the next morning since they were hitting the slopes and moving on, so they awoke us just two hours later. Where was Hooch? We hopped over to the van and found him comfortably clutch the whiskey and a spare pillow to his breast. I suppose the bathroom floor just didn’t do it for him.

Liza and Ryan fared ok, but Hooch and I had stayed up until about 7AM partying. I passed out in the van next to Hooch and we both slept for the next couple hours. I’m not sure what the others did – I think they checked out a hot springs and got some breakfast. I think I ate some oatmeal at a gas station later that day.

Yep. That’s the deal with Pagosa Springs. We’ve never really gotten to enjoy the daytime offerings of the beautiful town. Hooch befriended the friendly biker gang (They are called something ridiculous like the “He-Devils of Grace”) and they offered us a place to stay, so hopefully the next time will be a little more restful. Either way I won’t be surprised if we end

This was not our show at Pagosa Spings, but it captures the essence of the night's energy

up with a good story to tell.

Denver is the BOMB!

After our midnight drive to Colorado we slept all day and then proceeded to have one of my favorite shows of the tour. We have played in Denver several times: once at a strip club, and a few other times at a really divey bar that is great in it’s own way, but never had a real draw. This time we played a really cool bar/venue called Quixote’s. The place is huge and had multiple rooms with great sound systems, and is decorated with really cool paintings and old and new concert posters.

Naturally, the local-support that the venue had booked to play with us crapped out the day of the show, so we were left to play the entire night. We don’t mind playing long shows, but we always appreciate the draw of a local band to help us fill the venue. Part of the reason this show was so great, was because all of that didn’t matter: between our awesome friends and fans in Denver we brought out a raucous 35-40 person crowd, hungry for a night of funky-tunes! It was awesome and amazing to have so many people come out on a Thursday.

We already booked another show for December 15th at Quixote’s and I can’t wait to come back!

Video Update 9: Fan Questions + Voodoo Recap

Achachay! Answers fan questions, talks about opening Voodoo Music Experience, and encourages fans to spread the word in this 9th video update. Watch the vid! We love interacting with you guys so make sure to comment – on the video, on our conference call next Tuesday (see related post for info), here on the site, twitter, facebook, or in person!

Voodoo Video!

The Voodoo Music Experience was incredible. Please enjoy these videos!
We’ll be back soon with a recap of the weekend.

Achachay! – Tour Song – Voodoo Experience 2011 from Voodoo Experience on Vimeo.

Achachay! – Let Go – Voodoo Experience 2011 from Voodoo Experience on Vimeo.