The Taxpayers

Winter tour in the works

Well guess fuggin what?  We’re going on tour down to the warm South this winter again.  Snow birds 4lyfe!

This tour will be in preparation and celebration of some of us moving to New Orleans for school.  We will be bringing along our last album To Risk So Much For One Damn Meal on VINYL! and a limited-run tour exclusive EP.

There will be a lot of updates, check the PIX board here.

The Taxpayers’ Whirlwind Of Controversial Mystery Solving Extravaganza Featuring Vin Diesel and Starring Tom Hanks Tour

Thursday, Dec 1- Southern Oregon
Friday, Dec 2 - San Francisco, CA @ TBA
Saturday, Dec 3 - East Bay, CA @ TBA
Sunday, Dec 4 - Mountain View, CA @ TBA
Monday, Dec 5 - Santa Cruz, CA @subrosa infoshop 
Tuesday, Dec 6 - Central Cali
Wednesday, Dec 7 - Santa Barbara, CA @ TBA
Thursday, Dec 8 - So Cal
Friday, Dec 9 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Grape House
Saturday, Dec 10 - San Diego, CA @ Che Cafe (benefit show for Che) w/ Joyce Manor, Watercolor Paintings, Roman Candles, and much MORE!
Sunday, Dec 11 - Phoenix, AZ
Monday, Dec 12 - Tucson, AZ
Tuesday, Dec 13 - El Paso, TX @ TBA
Wednesday, Dec 14 - Odessa / Midland, TX
Thursday, Dec 15 - Fort Worth, TX @ 1919 Hemphill
Friday, Dec 16 - Denton, TX
Saturday, Dec 17 - Austin, TX
Sunday, Dec 18 - San Antonio, TX @ TBA with Unfun Productions
Monday, Dec 19 - Houston, TX
Tuesday, Dec 20 - New Orleans, LA

BREAK

Thursday, Dec 29 - Pensacola, FL
Friday, Dec 30 - Gainesville, FL
Saturday, Dec 31 - Sarasota, FL
Sunday, Jan 1 - Sarasota, FL
Monday, Jan 2 - Miami, FL
Tuesday, Jan 3 - Miami, FL
Wednesday, Jan 4 - The KEYS!
Thursday, Jan 5 - THE KEYS!
Friday, Jan 6 - Lake Worth, FL
Saturday, Jan 7 - St. Augustine, FL
Sunday, Jan 8 - Tallahassee, FL
Monday, Jan 9 - Back to New Orleans, LA

Useless State on tumblr

Well, shoot.  Useless State started a tumblr account!

You should stop on by and say hi.  Here is the link:
http://useless-state.tumblr.com/

Keep updated to find out what the hell we’re doing with our spare time.  The tumblr will let you know of upcoming Useless State releases, mp3 downloads, upcoming shows/tours, and poorly written blog posts.  We shoot for the stars here at Useless State

And you should probably know about the REAL website, too.
http://useless-state.com

It has clouds and grass.  Very serene.

CAT BAT PRINCESS

Well, Richmond Elementary had it’s last day of classes today.  It’s kind of both scary, sad, and exciting when that happens, for both the teachers and the students, because yeah, you’re getting out for the summer (!), but you’re also turning a page…you’re never going to see the same group of kids in the same capacity ever again, and…well, what the hell are you gonna do now?!  We had a talent show with the preschoolers and kindergarteners - the talents were things like “running”, “hopping”, “fake sleeping”, “burping”, and “light saber fighting”, and each of the talents were accompanied by one of the teachers playing a piano jingle while the kids hopped around on stage.  One of the boys came up to me at the end of the day with cardboard wings on, lipstick all over his face, and started yelling “ROB!!! I AM CAT BAT PRINCESS! I AM CAT BAT PRINCESS!!!!” while flapping his wings.  He then turned around and ran out the front doors of the school, no longer a student, but rather a deranged creature of the summer night.

On the evening prior to our 8th national tour, I keep thinking about Cat Bat Princess - wings flapping against all odds, lipstick defiantly smeared all over his face.  This tour is sort of bittersweet - it’ll be the last one for a while.  Kevin’s moving to New Orleans for a year, I’m going off to grad school to get my teacher’s license, and while we’ll continue doing the Taxpayers, there’ll be less tours for the next 2 years or so.  We’re so incredibly lucky to have discovered DIY music, and to have made all the incredible friends all across the damn country that we have, that I’m not even all that sad about it, just excited to become another deranged creature of the summer night.  Like Cat Bat Princess.

I’m searching for the lipstick as we speak.

CAT BAT PRINCESS TOUR

(subtitled: Punk’s Not Dead, It’s Locked in my Basement Eating Fish Heads Tour)

JUNE TOUR:
June 15: Tacoma, WA @ The Red Room (2313 S. Tacoma ave)  All ages!  We play at 9pm! w/ The Fun Police
June 16: Cheney, WA @ 601 Clay St w/ Harpo, Wombo Combo, and others! (6:30PM SHARP!!)
June 17: Missoula, MT @ the ZACC Basement ( 235 N. 1st St. West) w/ Buffler, Tyson Ballew, Harpo, and The Scribblers (link)
June 18: Day Off
June 19: Minneapolis, MN @ Psychic School - 2440 Lyndale Ave S w/ Destroy Nate Allen, The Scurvies, Apathedicks, Crimes (ex Paper Cup Band!) (link)
June 20: Minneapolis, MN @ Hymie’s Vintage Records w/ the FUCKING Annadale Cardinals!!!! (link)
June 21: Minneapolis, MN - @ The Krondstadt (ask a punk!) 9 PM SHARP!  music over by 10pm w/ Bouncer Fighter
June 22: Milwaukee, WI - Anthony Pointer Benefit @ Cream City Collectives w/ Harpo, State of Nature, Temple, and Borderline Human (link)
June 23: Chicago, IL @ Pancho’s w/ BUST!, Street Eaters, This Is My Fist, and Mean Mug  (link) 18+ boo.
June 24: Bloomington, IN @ Plan-It-X Fest (link)
June 25: Bloomington, IN @ Plan-It-X Fest
June 26: Bloomington, IN @ Plan-It-X Fest (WE PLAY!)
June 27: Belleville, IL (near St Louis, MO) @ Illegal Tone Recordings (8 South Church St)  w/ Family Might.  16+ or accompanied by a person 18+
June 28: Lincoln, NE @ Mad Ave (2800 N 48th st) 7PM w/ Scratch Howl, Gutterbal, and Minkus (link)
June 29: Fort Collins, CO @ Old Fort Collins Airport Terminal (2200 Airway Ave) w/ Sour Boy Bitter Girl and Dead Dogs (10 pm!)
June 30: SLC, UT @ BOING! w/ Fuck Yes!!!, Society Mis-call, and Cuddleslut.
July 1: Reno, NV @ TBA
July 2: Oakland, CA @ TBA
July 3: Eugene, OR @ TBA w/ Hi Ho Silver, Away! and Quick Attack

Hello? Is that you Darby Splash??

Holy crap you guys!!  In 2 days, we’ve already reached 125% on Kickstarter!  THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!  I think y’all made me cry last night…

There are still a bunch of ridiculous prizes available and we have a bunch of gratuitous energy to spend.  We also have a few new AMAZING prizes, including adopting a tour-fish to be in care of The Taxpayers.  We’re naming him Darby Splash.

Spread the word yo!  Tell yo friends, tell yo tumblrs, tell yo blogs, yo facebooks, go tell it off yo mountain, tell yo mama!  The Taxpayers are coming to your town.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/155204315/who-killed-tonya-harding

HERES A LITTLE FRESH SAMPLE OF COOKING WITH ROB:

YUM!!!!

WHO KILLED TONYA HARDING!?

Hello interwebz!!!!

How are you on this most excellent day?  It’s so nice out right now!  Guess what we did last night?  Go ahead, guess! …..   We made a Kickstarter page!

Why you ask?  Cause someone killed Tonya Harding!  No, NOT that Tonya Harding, the big beautiful boxey metallic one that sits on the road in front of our house.  Our van!  Simply put, Tonya is super sick and we fear she will not be able to safely travel to Bloomington, Indiana for Plan-It-X Fest.  Given this, we need to find a solution and FAST!  PIX Fest is next month and it’s a great honor and dream-come-true to be a part of this event, WE HAVE TO BE THERE (we’re playing the same day as Mountain Goats!!!!).  So we made a Kickstarter page to help remedy this.

The goal is set pretty low at $400, but the real expense of the trip is much much higher.  We have 20 days to meet the goal of $400 (hopefully it will exceed it!!!) and there are a BUNCH of awesome, weird prizes we offer for your lovely dollars.

Please visit our Kickstarter page to read more and PLEASE PLEASE spread the word.  Being a true DIY band is expensive and incurs a lot of costs that we cannot generally afford most of the time.  We’ve done nine national tours, lets hope for many many more!!!

Thank you so much to everyone who has helped us over the years.  You mean so much to us!

xoxo,
The Taxpayers 

JUNE TOUR!!!

We’re going on tour this June!!!  We will probably come up with a pretty stupid name for the tour in a couple days.  You can count on it!!!

So we’re going to Plan-It-X Fest with OUR FULL BAND(finally)!  All 7 of us our coming.
Here are the dates:

• Wed, June 15 - OLY / Seattle
• Thurs, June 16 - Spokane
• Fri, June 17 - Missoula
• Sat, June 18 - Bismarck (Day Off) <—- we’re gonna drink a bunch of beers and go fishin with Andrew’s dad.  YEE-HAWR!!!
• Sun, June 19 - Minneapolis
• Mon, June 20 - Minneapolis
• Tues, June 21 - Minneapolis
• Wed, June 22 - Milwaukee / Chicago
• Thurs, June 23 - Chicago
• Fri, June 24 - PIX FEST
• Sat, June 25 - PIX FEST
• Sun, June 26 - PIX FEST  (WE PLAY!)
• Mon, June 27 - St Louis
• Tues, June 28 - Lincoln / Omaha
• Wed, June 29 - Denver / Ft Collins
• Thurs, June 30 - SLC
• Fri, July 1 - Reno
• Sat, July 2 - San Fran / Oakland
• Sunday, July 3 - NAKED IN OUR BEDS AT HOME!

We especially need help in:Denver/Ft Collins, Lincoln/Omaha, and Milwaukee

PS - Our PIXFEST show is gonna make you shit yo pants.

A GOOF PUNK MANIFESTO

Hello friends! On the eve of the first annual Gathering of the Goof Punx, I was asked some very pertinent questions by a handful of the attendees.  It went something like this:

“Uh, so…what exactly is a Goof Punk?”
“Yeah, is it, like, a goofy lookin’ punk kid?”
“Wait, so am I a Goof Punk?”

After talking it over with some friends, we realized that the Goof Punx movement had been so loosely defined in the past that nobody really knew just what the hell it was, and whether or not they wanted to be a part of it. Sure, some of us had attached our own definition and beliefs and held it up as a beacon of inspiration, others used it as an excuse to party under a banner, and others thought of it as a funny club to be a part of.  We were all into different styles of music, but still considered those different varieties Goof Punk.  It became this amorphous creature that we could all get behind.

Ultimately, I think that’s a good thing.  However, it’s important to draw some distinctions regarding what makes the Goof Punx different from any other group of folks, and so we thought it would be nice to outline a few positions we could all agree on.  Therefore, we present to you the first Goof Punx Manifesto.  Please, feel free to add to it as you see fit.

            We, the Goof Punx, hold these truths to be self evident:


We hold our arms open to everybody that never felt comfortable anywhere else and believe that exclusion is the antithesis of punk.  All the goofy weirdos and nerds that could see the worth and usefullness of other people’s beliefs even if they didn’t agree with them, the comic book nerds, the lovers of libraries, the LOVERS, all those people, and more, are welcome here.

All human beings are created equal.  But please, don’t be a jerk and use that freedom to hurt others.  The Goof Punx believe in a world free of hatred and bigotry, and although that world doesn’t yet exist, we’d like to use the Goof Punk umbrella as shelter from that storm.  Racist, sexist, and all other such bullshit has no place with us.

That Action and Fun are analgous to each other, rather than opposites.  It’s important to work towards a better world, and it’s just as important to enjoy every minute of your existence.  Goof the hell off while making this place better.

That’s it for now.  And like I said, please add your own definition.  Consider this a wiki movement in which the correction pen belongs to you.

The RECORDS are IN!!!

Here they are!  Fresh in the mail.  They are pretty (black/grey marble) and totally awesome.  I am pretty damn excited about them.

Here are some photos of the record taken from my phone, the photos are pretty lo-res, but what can you do?

And if you wanna buy it for $10 through Plan-It-X, here is the link!:
http://www.plan-it-x.org/release/the-taxpayers/lp-version-of/