A month to prepare

I dream of someday writing a book. I think this would be a great accomplishment for irony. Since i rarely read. I'm not sure why that is either. Maybe i have an undiagnosed minor case of ADD and can't focus on it, or maybe i just never found the right book. Although a week ago i bought a Get In The Van by Henry Rollins, and I haven't put it down. I'm about 75% through the book right now and its very inspiring and at the same time, I feel like I've accomplished so little in my time in a band. Mostly I feel that i have a bunch of stories that I've gathered and want to document them. maybe I'll start updating this more with those stories from the past few years and the current stuff. Would anybody read that if I posted it?? Maybe that dream book will consist of thing and a the compiled ramblings of my notebooks filled with booking info, and to do lists. It will be a combo of Get In The Van and Kurt Cobain's Journals only way less successful.

I've wanted to tour since shortly after I picked up a guitar and realized how it makes noise. Most kids outgrow that phase but i can't seem to kick it. We had talks of doing something in the spring for like a week or so, but Peterson can't get the time off of work, so we're limited to weekends. Also as you all know we live in the northeast, and with our luck being that of a one eyed three legged cat who's been struck by lightening twice, I'm trying to be as careful as possible as to where we go. I do have 2 weekend tours in the works with bands that i am a huge fan of and friends with. January 29-31th we will be traveling across PA and NJ with the one man dance machine Team Goldie. I've unofficially dubbed it the "Dancing, Drinking, Fucking, Sleeping Tour" since I'm pretty sure I'll take part in none of these activities. Lets hope it catches on. And in February we will be traveling again across the great New York State tundra with Patrons of Sweet from Buffalo. More info on that as is develops.

In other news we're finishing recording our new disc "Flame On" and there is literally 3 more lines of singing that need to be recorded and then its done. What will happen with it in regards of pressing and releasing is anybodies guess right now. Hope for the best, plan for the worst. So my days of non-guitar selling are currently spent practicing the new tunes with The Andrea Doria gents, writing some new stuff, and booking these upcoming weekends. I've been filling my show playing addiction with my other band Stonelord. The new disc is being released this weekend. "new" being a relative term... we recorded it in June. Ahh reminds me of T.A.D.'s "Champagne Dreams on a Beer Budget" which i believed was recorded in September of '08 and released in July of '09. we're all pros.

Well, tomorrow's agenda will consist of making some phone calls for the Dancing, Drinking, Fucking, Sleeping tour... see its catching on already. doing some things for the day job, and doing merch inventory to see what new shirts and such we need to order. Days off are never days off but learning to play guitar morphed into playing guitar in bands and that mutated into pushing this dream as far as it can go.

I think these are the hapy times an older Mark will look back on fondly

Today was rockstar day. The Andrea Doria cats were in the Hollow recording a new record. And after one day i can say that this studio is the best kept secret in Syracuse. Totally a great place to record highly recomended. So we went in with plans of knocking out some to most of the drums, and ended up finishing all the drums and bass tracks. Tomorrow we all go back to that whole day job thing, and then Tuesday Steve and myself are going in to do guitars and vocals.

Following this turn of events, Rockstar Day concluded with us listening to our song Planet Problems being played on K-Rock. As cool and apathetic and anti-radio as i want to sound, hearing our song on the radio is pretty cool. You know that scene in That Thing You Do where they hear their song and run around to the store and turn on all the radios and dance around and such? well it wasn't like that. It was more like me, Nick and Matt sitting around their apartment, not being able to fins 100.9 on their clock radios and running to the van and finding what was being played and then going back inside and finding that song so we knew we had the right station. When it came on we had a moment of "wow".... then we just kind of looked at each other like, "....cool... i'm going home see you in the studio Tuesday."

Also next Sunday, go to this:
we're going to be incredibly out of place, but its going to be fun and the cash money is going to a good cause.

Chalk up another ridiculous experience of me hearing my own guitar playing and Steve Peterson's voice on the radio to me being able to play guitar.

The Syracuse SingAlong 2009

The Stockholm: Dead. The Lifeboat: For Sale Enter: The Great White Hope

Hey both my readers, I hope all has been well. There haven't been many posts, becasue things have been relatively normal here. Keep in mind "Normal" is a sliding scale that encompasses siphoning veggie oil from restaurants, and playing for a classroom of mentally challenged 4th graders. Seriously.... ask me about those sometime. The big new news is we have a new van our beautiful... reliable.... and sexy Ford E250 extended cab. In attempts to thwart the universe and change our luck around it will hence forth be known as The Great White Hope.

Tonight we took the beast on its maiden voyage to my old school where i met the majority of my readers, SUNY Binghamton. Big room.... few people.... terrible sound system.... the return of chocolate milk....nick and i destroying some public property with matt's bass cab, and some old friends showed up. Fun times. Ok this post was basically for me to remember this night. I just drove home through some fog... bed time

i've fallen behind

Hello internet friends....ok so here's the story with what's been going on. Since we last left our heroes The Andrea Doria... they have been continuing to push this square peg uphill into the round hole. Last Saturday, we met up after work and rounded up the garbage (musical gear) and rented a trailer and shuffled off to Buffalo. This show was different because our friend Josh from the band Seen It All (www.myspace.com/seenitalldotnet) asked us to come out. apparently heard our Shark Week disc and liked us enough to have us come out and play...weird... So we went out and played, and the show was... not as good as it should have been. maybe next time we will use less "talent juice" in the recipe. so around 1am we left the show and went to our merch guy Toby's appartment in Rochester. Slept for 4 hours and drove back to syracuse to go back to work at 11 on sunday.

so that show kind of left a bad taste in our mouthes. and this week there was a miscommunication and we had to cancel practice so tonight's show with team goldie (www.myspace.com/teamgoldie) could have gone either way. Luckily it went way better than could have been expected. So we played our standards and threw in a new fun cover. So i think spirits are high, and i need to go to bed to wake up early for work tomorrow and then Saturday holds a work day and a long 4 hour car ride to Manhattanville College.

more stories as the adventure into frowns-ville, which is just south of debt-town, continues

They've played Eurpoe, Hong Kong, and now my garage

So there i was looking busy at work but thinking about things like who was the first person to see a cows udder and think i'm gonna drink what comes our of that... anyways these guys come in and are talking in Scottish accents and are asking to play guitars and are blown away when i say they can play anything. after chit chatting (because like most girls am intrigued by accents) they say that they're a band called Vinyl and are on tour in Syracuse for the Music and Arts Festival (editors note: that should be read as and will from here on in be reffered to as Failure Fest 09'). they're show last night raked in 3 paying attendees, and they had tonight off. I told them that i could get them on a show tonight which may not have a good turnout, or pay, but it will be fun. The venue.... my garage. So with an hours notice, i called and text'd and sex'd everyone in my phone in the Syracuse area to say that i was throwing together a literal last minute show. Some people were there, and we shared gear and had a really fun time. That band is great, and i advise both of my readers.... well the literate one to check them out. http://www.myspace.com/vinylglasgow The one who comes here just for the pictures can look at this:

You've got to live every week.... Like its shark week

So last night we played a last minute secret show with our friends in Architect, Cannonade, and Ghost Ship. small room, lots of people and a big sweaty mess.

Its fun to be playing again

I got that itch to keep touring... maybe someday i'll grow up

So i'm sitting at the Syracuse airport waiting for my vacation flight since tour was canceled and I can't go back to work, and going over some of the plans for the next Andrea Doria quest for failure. Actually, no i need to stop that. Someone told me that the reason we keep having the luck of the guy who got hit by a comet after getting struck by lightening twice is because we keep putting out our negative, sarcastic, depressing vibe. Not to get too super hippy-ish, but matt and i were sitting at denny's drowning our sorrows in breakfast burritos and maple syrup and going over our karma for the last few months. The conversation went something like "was it somehting bad that i did? did i wrong that guy??"... "no that guy had it coming to him. why are we in a rut?" So in attempts to get things going again and keep the frowns to a minimum, we're working this new angle.

Step 1: Matt is looking into a new van. Since naming all of our possessions after things that blow up, sink, or other wise sell your crushed dreams on the black market hasn't been panning out, i am campaigning that we name the new van "The Great White Hope"

Step 2: Weekend tours are in order! So when i got home and had my little moping spree, I got an email form the band Seen It All from Buffalo asking us to come play with them in Buffalo on August 29th. So that's in order, and we're looking for a show in Rochester on August 28th. We're also venturing down to Long Island August 8th to party and play. And there's a small college weekend tour in the works for early September that will include Manhattanville College, and hopefully some southern NY colleges. And of course those adventures will be updated here. Lets get rowdy and live to regret some things!!

Step 3: profit from underpants

Step 4: New songwriting spree, and plans for a winter release. Nothing is set in stone yet, but there will be more fun ahead. So tell your friends to follow this blog (because it makes me feel like i have real friends ourside the internet) and our myspace, and come hang out with us at a show or 2.

...and whoever thought i'd be giving myself a pep talk online to be optimistic because i play guitar

some days are diamonds and some days are rocks

and sometimes god says "i don't want you to succeed". I am posting this from my living room watching caddyshack on AMC. I can do this becasue a few days ago i was riding with the Andrea Doria boys in the Stockholm down I95 approaching exit 90 in Four Oaks NC when upon turning on the offramp, we noticed a chage when every time steve hit the gas the engine would rev, but we weren't going any faster.

we pulled over and realized that the there was an issue since we had burned up all the transmission fluid... and although i'm not a car guy i know that is important. to make a long story less long, we preceded to take care of the sad sad business at hand. So 1 free hotel stay, 2 expensive tows, a $100 cab ride, and about $400 in rental minivans later we sold the Stockhlom to Big Doyle in NC and drive 13 hours home with our tail between our legs.

So unable to financially get a vehicle on such short notice fate has once again bitch slapped the Andrea Doria. So here we sit depressed, home from work and upset. But like that girl you regret meeting and giving your real phone number, we won't give up. Plans are in motion to keep playing shows, keep writing songs and in the near future ride again.

keep in touch for updates. We're a band fueled by spite and for some strange reason just can't give up.

tour day 4- Happy birfday 'Merica

Hi there. I am currently in the van typing today's blog entry that should have been done last night but i'm a busy busy man so this will have to do. So if memory serves me right i last left you guys with us in long island hanging out with some crazy people. that evening, we slept on hard wood floor, and woke up to guests arriving to the families 4th of july party. So we left there and had to buy some oil for our small but irritating oil leak from the van. we also realized that the door handle didn't want to secure. so we would be driving with the back door flopping in the wind. Steve Peterson used his keen "fixin' stuff" skills he developed in the jungles of south america along with the ones learned in 7th grade tech ed. to take apart the lock and fix the problem. and off we went through the great.... ok at best state of new jersey. and further south to delaware.

i'm going to use this moment to bring you into the personal lives of the andrea doria on tour. most bands are all about touring to get new fans, and sell alot of merch. for us those are just gravy on the undercooked dinner of our touring experience. some of our hobbies on the road include finding alcohol that is not available in Syracuse NY. (such as maddog 20/20, mickey's hand grenades, and santana champagne) another one is eating at shitty fast food places unavailable to us at home (sonic, cici's pizza, in and out burger, bojangel's crystals....etc.)

so to make a long story longer... we ate at a sonic in delaware and all was right with the world. As we went deeper south, we arrived at Virginia Beach, but not before driving over an 11 mile bridge that goes over the ocean and into tunnels under the ocean. now i'll take minute to tell you that i don't like driving on bridges... but i did it!!!

we didn't have a show booked for today, so we decided to have cook out on virgina beach... literally on the beach. so on virginia beach we made camp with a mini grill, burgers, hot dogs, cherry pepsi, mickey's and miller high life in hand. some girl came up and said she was dared to throw water on us. so i promply spilled her bucket of water and was like "awww crap now you can't do it". we then spent some time getting flipped off by the party on their beach blanket and returned fire. later as steve was walking by he made small conversation with them, and mentioned that we were from syracuse. turned out one of the girl's boyfriends grew up in syracuse and went to our high school. to make matter even crazier... her boy friend is one of matt's best friends who moved away. so now we have friends in Virginia beach.

anywho, after our beach adventure, i drove for 2 hours to get us back to the walmart we were at prior. the GPS said it would take 10 minutes, but apparently ALOT of people go to virgina beach for the 4th of july. crazy. so the 10 mile highway drive took 2 hours.

so for another night, i slept with sandy feet, without a shower, and this time instead of on a floor in long island i spent my evening curled up on the back seat of our van in a wal mart parking lot in virgina beach because i play guitar.

tour day 2- NYC

well, i am currently in Wantagh Long island. We drove across the state and everything went well. Matt parallel parked the van in NYC and Steve and i wandered for food and guitar shops. The overall turn out was depressing, even though i ran into some friends i hadn't seen in a while and really appreciate them coming out. I thought we played decently, although we had some technical difficulties.

so... now we are at jeff's house and were out on his dad's boat, steve kissed a fish. and i am srtuggleing to stay awake. and now we're going to bed.

tomorrow is 7 hours in a car becasue i taught jeff how to play guitar.

Tour Day 1- Syracuse, NY- Singer's Karaoke Bar

today doesn't feel like a real tour day because i woke up in my own bed, just got out of my shower, and am going back to my own bed. But in news that one or two of you may care about. We played tonight at Singer's Karaoke Bar. I was a bit skeptical of it since they don't usually do shows, but decided to have a going away/good riddance/ CD release party/show for us. It was running very behind schedule and i was curious as to how many people would stick round for us. A surprising amount of people hung out danced, sang along, clapped, and encouraged us to follow our boyhood dreams of being professional rock and rollers. (edit: nick's dream was to be an Olympic ice dancer, but his dad laid down the law and said making out with dudes is the closest his son could go to being gay.)

So back to the topic at hand. Awesome fun show. tons of merch sales. today counts as shower #1 of tour. and tomorrow we start the real days of tour, by heading to the big apple.

Side note: keep an eye on that shower count... and don't expect it to get much higher than it already is.

so tomorrow i am waking up early, packing my few remaining possessions, and meeting my idiot friends around noon to drive across the state to play notes wrong for a hopefully decent sized group of strangers, and then party with my old roommate from college at his parent's house in long island. i never really thought my daily planner would read that just because i know how to play guitar.

Its always quiet before the storm...

So tomorrow the tour starts with a Syracuse show at Singer's Karaoke Bar. Currently, the van AKA "The Stockholm" is sitting in my driveway with new tires, new batteries, freshly charged AC, and a basically rebuilt engine. All the gear is working properly, and bags are packed and things are good. I'm going to try to update this blog everyday, but don't quote me on that. If you can make it to any of these dates, we'd love to see you there!

July 2nd- Syracuse, NY- Singer's Karaoke Bar
July 3r- Manhattan, NY- Kenny's Castaways
July 4th- Virginia Beach
July 5th- Wilmington, NC- Lucky's
July 6th- Charleston, SC- Village Tavern
July 7th- Jacksonville, FL- CD Connection
July 8th- Orlando, FL
July 9h- Tampa, FL- The Orpheum
July10th- Tallahassee, FL
July 11th- Pensacola, FL- The Handlebar
July 12th- New Orleans, LA- Banks Street Bar
July 13th- Baton Rouge, LA
July 14th- Houston, TX- Super Happy Fun Land
July 15th- San Antonio, TX- White Rabbit
July 16th- El Paso, TX- Badlands Billiards
July 17th- Tucson, AZ- The Living Room
July 18th- Los Angeles, CA- The Rainbow


....and awayyyyyyyyyyyy we go....

I've been in more bands than relationships... i think i'm better at bands

So i was thinking on my drive home about that statement, and it made want to go back to all the bands in my life. and i made this list and decided to document it here on the interweb. So for 99.9999999% of you this will be boring and warranting skipping. There were other bands, orchestras, chamber ensembles, musicals, one off jam sessions, and solo performances here and there, but I'm counting bands that played real shows.

Cows Eat Pigs/ Analysis Positive('99-'01)- This was my first band. started in 9th grade and went until like 10th ot 11th grade. We played a couple parties but never really played a real show. But seriously, your first band, no matter how bad, is so much fun.

Main Guys:
Steve Peterson- Vocals/Guitar
Jay Roth- Bass
Mark Turley- Drums
Matt Solgatto- Guitar

Marty!('01-'07)- This was the first band i played guitar in. Started in high school, and went off and on through out high school and college... hence the many member changes. never a really great band, but we did alot with what little we had. played a bunch of shows all over NY, recorded and released alot of things ourselves, made a ton of merch, and had a blast the whole time. how many bands can say that?

Main guys:
Mark Turley- guitar/vocals
Adam Wickert- Vocals/guitar
Chris Haverlock- Bass
Dave Parkhurst- Drums
Other guys:
Josh Haverlock- Cello
Nick Streeter- Bass
Kyle Younis- Drums
John Urban- Vocals
Dave Buffum- Guitar
Steve Peterson- Drums

Shows: 52
Places: Syracuse, Binghamton, Rochester, Buffalo, Potsdam
Recordings: 1) Greatest Hits Demo
2) Punk Rock Ninja Stars
3) Evolution EP
4) Live at The Westcott
5) You're Old Enough and You Know Better/We Still Haven't Learned Our Lesson DVD

The Skatastrophies ('04-'05)- This was a ska band that i joined in college and played drums. Half the band loveed ska music, and the other half couldn't find better musicians to jam with. Lots of high energy shows and i must of lost like 30 lbs. playing in this band. At the end of my sophomore year, half the guys didn't want to play ska anymore, and it fell apart.

Main guys:
Mark- Drums
Alex- Bass
Phil- Trumpet
Greg- Guitar
Chris- Trumpet
Brian- Vocals
Other Guys:
John- Vocals
Thomas- Trombone

Shows: 7
Places: Binghamton University
Recordings: none

The Barbers of Mischief ('06-current.. sort of): This was a group of musicians i met playing in the pit orchestra for the musical "Gypsy" at college. A blend of jazz, and funk and all improvised. We had a saying that playing with musicians is like having sex. If you're in a band, its a committed relationship. When you play shows its like having sex. you know what's going to happen when and you know all the guys routines. When you just sit in and jam with random musicians its like a one night stand where if you play something they might not pick it up and run with it... anyways, back to my point... we didn't have songs, we had a collection of riffs everyone knew, and we would just jam on them and they were different orders, lengths, and solos every time we played them. All the guys are now all over the country with various jobs, school, and projects, but when everyone is in the same place we bring it back together. since it needs basically no rehearsal time.

Main guys:
Mark- Drums
Sam- Trombone/vocals
Zach- trumpet
Jack- Keyboards

Shows: 2
Places- Binghamton
Recordings: 1) One Night Stand

The Andrea Doria('07-present): My current baby. A fun energetic, incredibly sarcastic and pessimistic band of so and so's and the reason most of you read this blog. formed at the end of my senior year of college, and has gone on 2 tours accross the midwest, and northeast. going on tour in 3 days across the country and back. enough said.

Main Guys:
Mark Turley- Guitar
Steve Peterson- Vocals/Guitar
Matt Proietta- Bass
Nick Streeter- Drums

Other guys:
Adam Wickert- Guitar

Shows- 41
Places- Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, Purchase, Norwich, Binghamton, NYC, Bloomington IN, Memphis TN
Recordings- 1) Live Every Week Like Its Shark Week EP
2) Champagne Dreams on a Beer Budget

Stonelord ('07-Present): My other current project. sounds like if Led Zepplin were born in 1983 and grew up listening to the white stripes. A little different, and not in a scene by a long shot.

Mark- Drums
Brian- Guitars/ Vocals
Barry- Bass

Other guys:
Marvin- Keys
Shows- 46
Places- Syracuse, Buffalo, Albany, Purchase, Burlington VT
Recordings- 1) Chest Pains
2) Untitled

Lucky 13 ('08-'09) : A cover band formed by some friends at work plays alot of social distortion and johnny cash. Andy went on to in Unholy, and Dave is going to be the next big country sensation or the andrea doria's greatly underpaid and over worked guitar tech or something like that.
Main guys:
Dave "Allyn" Roseboom- vocals/guitar
Mark Turley- bass
Steve Port- drums
Other guys:
Andy Miller- Drums

Shows: 13
Places: Syracuse, Utica, Camden

i'm kinda bored so i'll bring you down to speed

I realize that some of you may not be as well acquainted with our history of touring to appreciate the sheer depression and negativity expressed here. so here is a brief recap of the "What The Heck Are You Gonna Do...." Tour from June 2008.

Our adventures began, as most do in downtown Syracuse, NY. We were scheduled to play at the Taste of Syracuse. Once onstage, there was a homeless man screaming at us to "PLAAAAAY!!!! PLAY NOW!!!!!! like i got time to wait through this." I turned to matt and said, "seriously?? he's homeless. where is he going to go and what does he have to do?" and matt replied, "hey! be nice or he'll take his bag of trash and go somewhere else." we played to a decent crowd and everyone seemed to have fun with us.

The next memory i have is us leaving and driving to Buffalo, and once we get off the highway and on to city roads i see a beautiful white steam coming from the hood. Now this may be important to this and future stories: I AM NOT A CAR GUY. never have been, occasionally pretend to be. but i generally have no idea. so as far as i can understand, we should have gotten a preasure release top and instead burned through a shit load of coolant. So i get the the venue, and there's no flyers. and no promoters. and a couple of confused bands. I called our buffalo contact who arranged for us to be on this show, and he put me in touch with the promoter. When i asked where he was, he replied "yeah I'm not coming to the show tonight. i got things to do." Now for my non musician friends, this is bad. like real bad. So we played for the other bands and our friends who came. and one of the bands packed up and left during our set (before they played). So we went to mighty taco with our friend alex. (check out his blog: Nerd To The Core) and we went to get veggie oil from some local restaurant. While we were there scouting out good oil, a police woman came and asked us why were in this parking lot at midnight. We said we were having engine trouble, and she said she would return in like 15 minutes to check on us. we took what we could and went to our friend Ed's place to crash.

the next morning we woke up and went back to take the rest of the oil. and as we worked i noticed that the building next to the restaurant, was an m&t bank. Maybe 6 dudes outside of a bank in a big white van does look a little suspicious. So our next adventure took place in Bloomington IN. Now as some, most or all of you know, Bloomington is nowhere near Buffalo. Since non of us had ever been on tour before, and I have never booked a tour, i tried to plan everything around where were knew people so we would have somewhere to stay. so as we drove we stopped somewhere in OH for gas and Adam (our old guitar player) and Matt had a legendary tiff about money, taking oil, and general tour life. As we pressed on I remember seeing signs for Tom Rapper RV's and i remember thinking that that is the most horrible name for a company especially one that sells large enclosed vehicles, and driving through a rain storm.

When we arrive in Bloomington it is still raining and we called the venue on the way to say we were running late, and they said "we don't have a band playing tonight." to which i said "yes you do, and we're on our way." We get there and there's very few people there and we're like "fuuuuuuuuuuuck... is this even worth playing?" then i saw my friends jack and sarah who traveled pretty far for this. so i figured it was worth playing as a thank you for the effort to them. so we set up wicked fast, and the remaining bar people came up to the band area. we played and by the first song realized something weird and special was happening. We'd never met or seen most of these people before, and they were picking up everything we were putting out and loving it. So we played an awesome show and as we were loading up people weren't letting us get to our van. they were like "when are you coming back??!!" and we were like "we don't even know when we're getting home." so we crashed at Sarah's and the next day had veggie hunting and driving.


well that's it for now. After 2 shows of no promotion, and no one even knowing we were playing this, is where the story starts to get sad and depressing. but i'll catch you up on that in a few days...

the positive aspects of negative thinking

well summer is almost officially started, and that means bug bites, sweaty arm pits, and driving aimlessly through the wonder of America and taking in all of its local legends, and tales of misfortune. who knows we may even play a show or two!!

here is the most up to date list of shows this summer:

lets see if i can name these all form memory...

July 2nd- Syracuse, NY @ Singers Kareoke Club
July 3rd- NYC, NY @ Kenny's Castaways
July 4th- Richmond VA @ possibly a house party, possibly crashing a park and just playing
July 5th- Wilmington, NC @ Lucky's
July 6th- Charleston, SC @ Village Tavern
July 7th- Jacksonville, FL @ CD Connection
July 9th- Tampa, FL @ The Orpheum
July 11th- Pensacola, FL @ The Handlebar
July 12th- New Orleans @ Bank Street Bar
July 15th- San Antonio, TX @ White Rabbit
July 16th- El Paso, TX @ Badlands Billiards
July 17th- Tuscon, AZ @ The Living Room
July 18th- Los Angeles @ The Rainbow Room

whoo hoo not bad mark! Still working on July 8th in either Orlando or Gainsveille, July 10th in Tallahassee, July 13th in Baton Rouge, LA, and July 14th in Houston, TX. So if anyone can help out, please do.

Due to a change in plans because of jobs and such on July 19th, Steve will be flying home, and the remaining members of this traveling circus will be driving the Stockholm back across this land of opportunity. (which will consist of getting to vegas and placing all of our merch money on red.) Also, we put a new song up on our myspace. check it out! www.myspace.com/theandreadoriaband

ok, well time to go to bed and plan for the next few weeks of gathering the goods we need for tour, learning more songs, and training Colin how to drive the Stockholm.

PS: sorry to whoever's mailbox in Canastota i backed the Stockholm into the other day. i'm not that good at doing 3 point turns with it. I just have to learn how to drive it because i play guitar

Thought i saw you on the road last night... i need to get my eyes checked

well, yesterday i picked up the S.S. Stockholm from one of its many central NY hiding spots. Just opening the door and climbing in brought back memories. As soon as i smelt the sweet sweet scent of year old veggie oil sitting in the back, it made remember our crazy optimistic vision of success we had last year. (for those of you who don't know last year we ran the engine on used vegetable oil) Thankfully we've been bitch slapped by fate enough times that we are now at a point where the glass always looks half empty... and slowly leaking until its bone dry.

So as I was saying starting up the Stockholm and driving it home, it ran a lot better then last year. (a new engine, and actually having all the bolts tightened with a wrench rather than by hand will do that) Although, some things never change. There is still no rear view mirror, it is still really easy to turn left but requires all of your body weight to turn right, and once the massive beast is up to ramming speed its a breeze, but city driving is going to SUCK. Also, as i was flooring the gas to get up to about 35mph, and car decided to jump out in front of me, requiring me to press the brake almost all the way to the floor to get a reaction. That may or may not have been an exaggeration . Come aboard this potentially dangerous adventure on 6 wheels to find out!

So now starts the cleaning process. Matt called me and told me he began removing some things we left in there last year. in our effort to bring all the gear and our bags and such back home in a Saturn, and a minivan that we couldn't take the seats out of, we left some things behind (pillows, blankets, non perishable food, some perishable food we forgot about...). One thing Matt learned and educated me on is that on a long enough time line (roughly a year) bread will liquefy. Who knew right?? well that's gone. and we are planning on dumping our left over veggie oil in the grease trap of a restaurant somewhere. shouldn't be too hard. i mean last year we were stealing oil everywhere, now we just want to give it back. So this next chapter of the adventure continues, we will be having a dance party in the van at our next show at castle rockmore.

So this weekend sees me cleaning a van so big i can't reach the roof and so long it takes up two parking spaces. As well as returning some used veggie oil to restaurants who have no idea what we are doing to their grease traps. And desperately trying to get rod of smells that words cannot describe. Keeo in mind i lived in a 8 dude apartment in college, and the oders that haunt this van dwarf anything i have previously encountered. All of this has become my life because one day i decided to play guitar.

as i sew this together, the other end is slowly unraveling

Well, here i am adding another chapter to this tale of failure. Actually that is kind of a fib. There hasn't really been any major let downs since last time, of course there hasn't been any terrific news developments. Ahh apathy, the one thing that can never let you down.

So as i continue to call people I've never met and ask them to give me and 4 of my idiot friends money to play some chords wrong for them, occasionally clever chitchat pays off. Since last time we've added these dates:

July 13th- Houston, TX at Java Jazz
July 14th- San Antonio, TX at The Warhol
July 21st- Monterey, CA at Monterey Live
August 2nd- Bloomington, IN at the Player's Pub
August 6th- Pittsburgh, PA at Howler's Coyote Cafe

So with that good news comes this slightly worrying news. We are currently playing phone tag with our mechanic about our beloved van The Stockholm: [insert mugshot here]

you may recognize this behemoth. it is wanted in 7 states for murdering dreams, dismembering hope and crushing childhoods. We hope to have some developments on its status as a member of The Andrea Doria family. (its kind of like that uncle that shows up in his pickup truck to family events, rolls down the window says happy birthday/ merry Christmas/ sorry for your loss, then drinks his beer as he drives away). Maybe on a slow news day I'll recount some of the misadventures of this van.

oh and there's some shows coming up in the next week and month:


so in the next few weeks i will continue to try to con bands, venues and music listeners to hang out with the Andrea Doria this summer. As well as call some of my close friends and those who's names i barely remember and ask if me and 4 fun, possibly smelly and most likely drunk friends can sleep on their floors. This has become my life because years ago i thought it would be a good idea to play guitar...

well, i finally did it

I'm mark. i play guitar for the band The Andrea Doria from Syracuse, NY. We play shows and go on tour and fun stupid things happen. I've decided to start compiling our adventures here.

here's the cast of characters to keep up in this sad ongoing story of debt, depression and occasional music playing:

Mark: that's me! i play guitar for the band and occasionally shout into the microphone. My day job is working at a guitar store and teaching guitar and drum lessons. i also handle most of our booking and thing of that nature. When thing inevitably go wrong, i'll usually have a momentary freak out and then try to find a solution

Steve: he plays guitar and sings. He also does all the lyric writing and does some internets stuff for us. His day job is being a plumber. On long car trips he usually puts in headphones, reads, and passes out.

Matt: he plays bass, and deals with the van. To borrow a phrase: "Matt is my own personal Kramer. A little train wreck that i get to watch everyday." Matt is also our financial backing for most of our half assed plans. Along with his "Brain Trust" Matt is the perfect aid to get you into or out of any jam.

Nick: he is our drummer. he helps me with a lot of the booking and is often the center of attention. Nick works with me at the guitar store and is a DJ at a karaoke bar. Always up for a good time and some stupidity.

Colin: Colin is our merch guy. He's currently a student and has been a part of some capers a bit more involved then ours. his mom is making him go on tour with us this summer.

So that being said, the brief history is that we went on a failure of a tour last summer with a slightly different lineup, and since then have played a number of shows around the northeast US. We went on a mini tour in a Suberau and a trailer in March. We will be doing a Full US tour this July for 5 weeks across the country to California. So check the myspace frequently for updates, and here are the dates that are confirmed already.

July 5th- Wilmington, NC- Lucky's
July 6th- Charleston, SC- Village Tavern
July 7th- Jacksonville, FL- CD Connection
July 9th- Brandon, FL- Black Coffee Gallery
July 9th- Tampa, FL- The Orpheum
July 11th- Pensacola, FL- The Handlebar
July 12th- New Orleans, LA- Banks Street Bar
July 16th- El Paso, TX- Badlands Billiards
July 18th- Los Angeles, CA- The Rainbow
July 21st- Monterey, CA- Monterey Live
July 22nd- San Francisco, CA- The Rockit Room
July 25th- Las Vegas, NV- The Double Down Saloon
July 27th- Denver, CO- Wax Trax CD Store
July 27th- Denver, CO- Owsley's

So until the month of July I will continue to call and email people I have never met and ask if a band they have never heard of can play in their club and if they will give us money. All of this will continue to happen because I can play guitar.