I'll fill everyone in on all the craziness of the last week.  First off the fifteen hour drive from Tucson to Austin was totally insane.  By the time we got to Austin I think we all were a little crazy. Nothing better than spending a whole day in a van that smells like a locker room with a broken toilet.  Also the last 100 miles of the drive were on a highway that was surrounded by 1,000 deer.

Day 1- Our first day in Austin was a busy one.  We had an early show at Headhunters.  It was pretty great.  My dad showed up and drank some beers with us.  We got to see Bryan and Lee from the label play in their new band called Snake Trap.  They were good.  It was all instrumentals and super tight.  After we played our old bro's The Spiders played.  We hadn't seen them play with their new bass player yet.  His name is Colin so I already liked him.  They put on a hell of a show.  I love that band.  After that we moved the gear down the street for our showcase that night.  Before our showcase we all split up to check out other bands.  The Count and I went and saw The New Pornographers at Stubbs.  They were really good.  I think I'm in love with Neko Case.  Oh yeah did I mention that there were thousands of super hot girls everywhere.  Just thought I would add that.  I feel in love forty times in four days.  Anyway the Australian Cattle God Records showcase was great.  Tia Carrera was awesome as was Gorch Fock.  We played a fun set and everyone seemed to really enjoy it.  The fact that we sold a bunch of merch at a SXSW show was pretty cool.  The ladies from Tsu Shi Ma Me Rae were there dancing up a storm. 

Day 2- We played a little show at a place called Woody's that evening.  It was fun.  A band called Megazilla played earlier and I liked them a lot.  They are from Columbia MO and used to be in Transponder.  We played to about 10 people that night.  Those 10 people's lives will never be the same again.  After that we headed downtown to see some shows.  The Count and I went and saw the Eagles of Death Metal.  The Capn and Danger went and saw Hank III.  All of us came back pretty happy.  I liked The Eagles a lot.  They put on a hell of a show.  Also this band called Mark Mullman played earlier before them.  It was like seeing the bastard son of Billy Joel and Bobby Con.  Totally fun and awesome.  Later that night The Count and I met a �traveler/bum� named O'Colin.  He had a switch blade named Marie.  I thought we were gonna die.  Instead we had a really weird conversation that went on for way too long. 

Day 3- We went and saw The Spiders in the afternoon.  There was a girl there with a Playboys shirt on.  I was happy about that.  The Spiders were great as always.  After them was Pong.  We saw these guys last year at FXFY.  They are the so damn fun to watch.  I haven't seen too many bands that smile that much on stage.  That night we were in San Marcos.  The Spiders threw us a BBQ and then we were off to play the Triple Crown.  The people in San Marcos like the Playboys more than anywhere else in the world.  They have a drinking game in the bar for our Gladis Knight song.  When it comes on the Jukebox the last one to point their hand in the air has to buy a round of shots.  Well when we played the first note of that song live everyone in the bar shot their hands in the air.  It was great.  Capn played a solo on the bar.  Chris Spider said it was in his top five favorite shows ever.  That makes me happy.  The Spiders and Imperial Battle Snake were the other bands to play.  Both were f'in great.  The International Playboys love San Marcos. 

Day 4- Fuck By Fuck You was crazy this year.  I bet there were at least two hundred people there.  It was rainy out side and it didn't seem to bother anyone.  I think fourteen kegs were consumed by the end of the day.  Bands that really stuck out in my mind were Shellshag, DMBQ, The Emeralds, Gorch Fock and Reverend Peyton and his big damn band.  Gorch Fock played a hell of a set.  DMBQ really impressed us.  They are F'in crazy!  At the end of their set they destroyed the drum set with this huge rock.  Wow.  We got to hang out with Win from the label and talk about album art.  They seem really excited about putting out the new Playboy stuff.  That makes me happy. 

Now that SXSW was over we headed out to OK City.  The show was on a Sunday so we weren't expecting much out of it.  Our good ol' friend Beth took care of us when we got to town.  She had sandwiches and pizza rolls waiting for us.  Then we were off to the bar.  The bar was called The Hi Lo and it was amazing.  It looked like it was built in the 60's and then never refurnished.  Holy cow was the show great.  There were a ton of people there and they knew the words to our songs.  I don't even know the words to some of our old songs so you can imagine my surprise.  Anyway we got paid really well and had a great time.  Beth we love you. 

Next we were off to Denver with just a couple hours of sleep.  Little did we know that Kansas had other plans for us.  After we made it into Kansas the snow hit.  When I say the snow hit I mean zero visibility and no highway to be seen.  The only way you could see the highway was the tracks the crazy truckers left for you.  So we were going extremely slow by this point and kinda figured we were gonna make it to Denver.  Well after two cars drove off the road trying to pass us they closed the Highway and dumped us in a town called Oakley Kansas.  We got one of the last hotel rooms in town.  Seriously!  We stayed at the Annie Oakley Motel wow was it great let me tell some of it's amazing traits.  Cigarette burns on the blankets, no towels, what looked to be a blood stain on the chair, urine stain on the floor(trust me two of us smelled it) and a used fly swatter(still had fly parts on it) hanging above the ice bucket.  Bob from the Volumen could not have stayed in this room.  Well after almost dying on our drive that day we sat in our new suite and watched comedy central and ate pizza. 

Well after realizing that we were going to miss our Salt Lake show as well we just decided to head straight home.  Nothing to exciting about that.  We did see a Jackalope in Wyoming and that was neat. 

So that's the end of The International Playboys SXSW PBR Tour 2006.  Here are some folks that we would like to thank.  Brian Foss(Seattle), Gator(PDX), Book of Maps(PDX), The AX(PDX), Charles(Sac), Jolene and Jason(Oakland), The Mothballs(Oakland), Lew and Daisy(LA), Abe(LA), Steven and Luna Rei(San Diego), Mick from the Tower Bar(San Diego),The Knockout Pills(Tucson), Don and Julie Morton(Tucson), Mike Hickey(Austin), Win, Brian and Lee from Australian Cattle God Records(Austin), Gorch Fock(Austin), The Spiders(San Marcos), The people of San Marcos for being so damn cool, Megazilla(they are from Columbia MO but we hung out with them in Austin),  The Imperial Battle Snake(from Chicago), Beth(OK City), Justin(Laramie WY).  I think that's it.  I'm sure I forgot some people.  Love you all.

xoxo

Monty