akgow

So yeah...Andrew from Men As Trees here. I really don't understand why you dudes are so upset with us. First of all, we love you guys and consider you some of our best band friends, and it is really disappointing to have you guys speak so poorly of us. I agree that us few bands need to stick together, and it seems like you guys are trying to drive a wedge through our friendship over nothing.

I've only ever thrown 2 shows in Michigan. One was last July for l'antietam (which you guys played) and the other was our New Year's Eve show, which was more of a party and we only had 2 bands, Men As Trees and Wolve. I only wanted 2 bands for the show since our neighbour is really sketch and Wolve was not picked over Ariadne's Thread because your "screamo" sound wouldn't of gone over well. I love diverse shows but we have been friends with the guys in Wolve for over 5-6 years now, had never yet played with them, and they were all going to be at the party anyways since they live in the same town as us. It was never my intention to slight you guys, and I really wish you would of just picked up the phone and called me if you were pissed rather vent to randoms on the internet.

You guys might be mad about not being asked to play our CD Release show. If it was up to me I would have had everyone we are friends with from here to Chicago play, but after our New Year's Eve show, our neighbour threatened to call the cops the next time it looked like we were having a "party". So already with 4 bands slotted to play, I'm basically begging for a Noise Violation ticket. And the bands on the bill for our CD release have been slated forever since Wolve and Docile Bodies are again local friends who we've known for 5-6 years, and Lungs is playing since Mick recorded Violin on our new album and needs to be at the show anyways. I turned down a bunch of out of town bands because there simply wasn't room. Truly nothing personal.

I also had 2 more shows slated for summer, our June 8th Tour Kick Off with Mans, and our July 20th Osceola show. The band and I were talking at practice the other day about how it would be sweet to get you guys out here for one of those since they weren't booked yet and we didn't have local commitments but after reading the above posts I guess you guys are done with us for how ****ty we have been to you. I know always being really friendly to you guys and offering to help put out your EP for free must make me a real *******, right?

~Andrew/Men As Trees

PS - after hearing about this Frank says :-(

alliteration

trust me Andrew, its really nothing personal. but you have to understand my frustrations. you know i don't think any of you guys are *******s, and i clearly never said that. when it comes down to it, like i said **** never goes well for us. ever since we've been a "band" nothing has ever gone our way. hell, we still don't have a drummer. there has never been any real support or anything there for us, so forgive me for being extremely disenchanted with the current state of things. evan and i have been writing together for years, its been something close and personal to us, and to be honest, all we've really ever wanted to do was share that with people. honestly, i don't know if its worth it though. its clear we're not welcome in k-zoo anymore, at least it doesnt seem like it, and i'm not sure why. it seemed like Russ liked us well enough, then one day, he acts like he doesn't know us. and to be honest, i never got the feeling that you guys sincerely wanted to have us out to play shows. i know we do a lot of talking, and a lot of it, you know, gets thrown out there and thats just that. i know that, and you know that. it just seems that we're quite invisible in this tiny scene. whatever. i don't know if i have to promote more on myspace, beg people all over for shows, or comment a lot and make friends on myspace, i honestly have no idea. i didn't think that i would have to kiss people's asses so much just to get a place to play. i'm not good at that at all, nor am i good at false friendships, so there's that. i can't pretend to be best friends with some band simply because we're both DIY. if thats what it takes, then i guess we won't be playing anymore shows. i am simply frustrated at the fact that you guys have been planning a few of these shows for awhile (according to myspace) but this is the first i've heard of you guys considering us to play.

you're right, i know that you never intended to slight us. i get it. sometimes though, after **** goes bad for so long, you start to wonder if anyone has your back. it just doesn't feel that way. perhaps i should've been up front with you about this. but oh well, i never once thought of calling you up to say anything about this, because i honestly never thought of it. my fault. i'm not the most personal of people out there, and even though the internet is a ****ty medium, for some reason i felt a tad bit more comfortable here. i apologize, its a bad place to bring out the claws. but i would've been less frustrated if you had just said then what you are saying now. if you just said, "hey, we can't do a lot of bands, and these are the reasons" that would be fine. i understand that. but simply saying we don't fit in and just inviting us on facebook to come and hang just seemed odd to me. i know you guys and Wolve go way back, and I understand how that goes, but when you talk about not fitting in or appealing to a certain crowd, i had no idea we were that out there.

and i know you guys have always been friendly towards us, and i feel like we have been back. you guys are good dudes and fun to hang out with. my purpose was not to say anything bad about you guys as a band or as people. my intent was purely to express my distaste at the fact that it seems we just have **** luck and nothing works out. you have my sincerest apologies if you feel i offended you as people or a band. that was not my intent. i cannot apologize for my frustration, only how i carried it out.

also, shows are up in the air for us, we have one of the 7th with Mans here in Lansing, but who knows what will happen there. This Is Ours fest resulted in severe injuries for our instruments, and we both have non-functioning equipment at the present. Oh well.

bardonodude

what about capsule and tunes for bears to dance to? Or do they live pretty far away?

akgow

I guess if you guys ever felt not welcome/invited to play, it is because I don't like to waste people's time. My friends don't know what DIY is. They hate screamo. They listen to bands like Men As Trees. Wolve and Docile Bodies because they are our friends and want to support us. We don't have random kids coming to shows like in real cities. There is no scene in Auburn Hills, MI and nothing would make me feel worse, than have you guys drive all the way out to play at my pad, only to have all my friends embarrass me and leave to go drink and smoke outside because they felt no obligation to pay attention. I can't get bands money for playing because if I charge no one will come. Usually I have to spend all my money on kegs to bribe people to show up. I already feel like **** that Lungs is coming all the way from Dayton, OH with a good chance that they will be leaving with nothing. This reality sucks and I am absolutely aware of how ****ty it is. There is a reason we never play shows in Michigan and try to tour as much as possible. We have always liked you guys and your music and I feel bad that we don't live somewhere more supportive. You guys know just as good as us that Michigan is dead.

And I'm sorry you guys feel frustrated but that is what comes with being DIY. It is hard and you have to work for everything, but so do we and I don't want you guys to think that we have gotten where we are, and toured as much have for any reason other than I am a slave to my computer. It sucks, but it is what it is.

swim

I'm thinking seeing you guys in Greenville with Mans will be the best show I see all Summer.

__________________
http://nakednaps.bandcamp.com/

akgow

Thanks dude, we're super pumped to play at the Spaz. I think Billy from Flames! Over Broadway said it was his favourite venue ever. Never played NC before but I've heard a lot of real good stuff. Definitely looking forward to it!

<3 Andrew/Men As Trees

xcult_classicx

we're the only active screamo band in this country as of the moment and being in a scene saturated with either uber-anarcho crust punks or nyhc surplus, there really isn't any room for a band of middle class kids to play 11 minute songs where people cry and roll over the floor and **** while talking about their feelings. i mean, look guys, i really have nothing to say here since i haven't been to your scenes but since i seem to have a relatively similar problem, so i just thought it would be a good idea for me to share some stuff. there's only one group of people who organize DIY punk/hardcore shows here, and that's the group of people who make up the COT crew which i'm sideways a "part of". it basically sucks every time you have to play a show and you have to shoo your bandmates away because one is a pretentious ******* and the other is popular in the city's local non punk band circuit and has been seen on tv. i mean, yeah. i got into a small argument with Pete from As A Whole a while back, and it almost pulled the plug on all of CB's plans to play a diy show again. luck hasn't been so good for us here since people only take you seriously if you play either d-beat or beatdown hardcore or something. it's disappointing to know that it feels like so much of a big favor to end up on anybody's lineup. nobody really pays attention when we play, and when we do, it's probably either scene kids who end up finding the show in the middle of nowhere or the kids who think we sound like Converge or whatnot. i feel really bad being an anomaly in my local scene and seriously wish that i could have this band up there in the US instead of here because i'm sure that regardless of the fact that your scene may be small, you have a good community of screamo bands who tour all over the place and that's always something to look forward to. face it, we got nothing. all the screamo coming out of this country is either by me or one of my friends who lives 900+ miles away all up in Manila and can't tour.

oh yeah, andrew. francis here from caitlyn bailey

akgow

Francis, you're a good man and really put our lives into perspective....although I do still really wanna do a Malaysia/Philippines tour one day. I figure as it is with lmany facets of life, the grass is always greener on the other side and much as I complain about "auburn hills, mi"..I guess it could be a lot worse.

New tunes of yours a sick dude, come tour north american someday!
<3 Andrew

xcult_classicx

i seriously want to and we seriously want to. we just don't have the means to get there as of yet. i'm the only one in the band with a visa, so it's going to be a bitch when the other members apply, also we don't really have much on the financial end, so we're going to have to work for a REALLY long time if we're going to save up for a US tour with tickets and travel expenses into account. we're still working on touring Malaysia this October though, hopefully we get to share dates with ...Who Calls So Loud and Conquest For Death. it's embarrassing to say the least that people in other countries pay more attention to what we do instead of the people in our scene who see us hanging around the city every now and then. i'd seriously kill to have an Ariadne's Thread or a Men As Trees here, if not, just a bunch of awesome dudes who get what we play and honestly like what we do because it's the kind of music we want. i dunno, i guess i'm frustrated that way in my own right.

paengkee

omg emo fight! (ಠ_ಠ)













just playin guys. <3

-Raph
caitlyn bailey
guitarist
hopeless romantic
spock
pasta