We hit the road for Boone, NC on Thursday.  Our long time friend John Paul Pardy opened up a board shop called RECESS up in Boone town so we went up to hang out and play his grand opening.  By the way, It’s awesome, check it out.  It was at the Dragonfly theater which was pretty sweet.  I had noticed a mexican restaurant across the street earlier.  I’m a big fan of walkable mexican restaurants from the venue.  We ate (and drank) for a good while and made our way back to the dragonfly.  It was a fun show.  Our set included some fun covers. “Breakdown”, “Have a Cigar”.  We crashed at John Paul’s after and hit the road to Richmond early Friday.

Richmond finally got another House of Fools show.  We hadn’t played there in years.  It was a great show for us and we became even better friends with the Animal Beat.  Paul put us up (Thanks buddy) Travis provided the beer.

Personally, I needed it.  I’m glad to add to the network.  Our network for the longest time was laced with my best friends in the whole world.  I got to play shows with them, and see them.  They have all since broken up or disbanded.  Or very rarely play.  I miss them all.  Far-Less, Paulson, He Is Legend, Classic Case, Piebald.  Too many to name.  Sometimes I feel like House of Fools is the Last of the Mohicans.  Having the Animal Beat around was refreshing.

Now I look ahead of me to another week of work.  I handle not fun stuff (yardwork, new health insurance, etc) Then handle House of Fools stuff.  We’ve got Blacksburg, VA on Saturday the 21st.  Champs.  Come on out Virginia.

We just keep trucking.  We don’t fight.  We play.  We don’t get discouraged.  We work.  Now more than ever we survive.  I don’t know how but we do.  And i love it.

David

Last week was a rollercoaster of emotions not only for me, but also for my hometown.  On Halloween night, Marion, VA lost one of its finest sons; Eric Albano.  Eric was a light to everyone he met….he was the life of the party and I had recently gotten to know him really well through our mutual love of music.  Eric was one of the first people to really show support for me when i started playing acoustic gigs at the Lucky Pub and he really helped build the local music scene in Marion over the past couple years.

Recently some of the other fools guys started playing with me up at the pub and had the pleasure of meeting Eric.  I think I can speak for everyone in saying that not only did Eric love the fools, but the fools instantly loved Eric.  It was impossible not to.  His boisterous personality and rumbling voice filled up the room and his laugh was infectious in the best kind of way.

Last Tuesday an estimated 3,000 people filed into a Marion funeral home to pay their final respects to Eric.  When I finally made it inside and was able to visit with the family, they told me that Eric absolutely couldn’t wait to see our upcoming performance at the pub which was the following Saturday.  They said it was all he was talking about the week before his passing.  I was hit with a wave of emotions that i am not sure I have ever felt…

This past Saturday we had the pleasure of performing a House of Fools or “Pub of Fools” show as it was referred to by the folks in Marion to a sold out crowd full of Eric’s family and closest friends.  It was one of the most emotional and gratifying nights of my life and hands down the most special show I have ever played.  I want to thank the people of Marion for making me proud to claim southwest Virginia as my roots!  I want to thank my guys for being the most amazing group of musicians and friends I could ask for.  And I want to thank Eric Albano for sharing his 35 years on this earth with us.  We are going to miss you dude.

Jordan and HOF

Well, I just wrote a novel description of my Custom Shop Gibson guitar I’m putting up on Ebay tonight.  Pretty depressing.  It’s economically the best decision for me right now though. We’re all trying to put some money back.  It’s that time of the year.  I can’t believe the holiday’s are coming up.  Even more so, I can’t belive how NOT ready I am for them.

The good things I have going for me are not only House of Fools in itself,  but a new and exciting team working for us behind the scenes.  Alex is getting us connected!! Sorry man…I know us southerners are a little behind the beat :).  We’ve also got many regional shows coming up.  Troika Music Festival in Durham, Some VA shows, etc.  I miss it out west.  I miss all our fans and friends that I don’t get to see anymore now that HOF isn’t touring nationally.  When we get the new album figured out, and enough money put back, that’s first on the agenda.  I swear I crave Austin, Texas.  I do consider myself a bluesman.  I love Chicago, and what time I’ve spent in Memphis is exciting, but Austin is where it’s at.  I want to be down on 6th st on a Monday night, randomly walk in a bar, and hear great music.  The complete OPPOSITE of the Monday night Blues Jam where I live.  The wonderfully uncultured High Point, NC. If I were there, maybe I’d sit in with some people who could teach me something.  Or pick Alan Haynes brain on guitar tone.  How does he make it pop like that?? Is it the old strat? It doesn’t hurt my ears.  Perfect midrange cut.  I bet he modded it.  Anyways I miss that town.  I also miss (in particular) Piebald, Paulson, and Limbeck.  I’ve been playing Piebald’s cover of the Kinks “Strangers” and Limbeck’s “Sin City” at my local, acoustic, cover gigs lately.  Brings back fond memories.

Hopefully this whole mess will work itself out.  “Why are we still here?”” : ” I Dunno, but we are!”

Today’s been humbling. I love NC in the fall.

~David McLaughlin

Hello fellow bloggers, blogees, blogistas and so on…..

Jordan here.  I am one of the new guys in House of Fools.  I play bass.  Jack is the other new guy.  He plays drums.

Abnormally short sentences aside, I would like to take a second to catch you all up on the happenings of House of Fools over the past several months.  Like I said before, Jack and I are the new guys.  Jack joined the band in early 2009 after the departure of Phil Bell.  Salsa continued to play shows for the next few months, but left for personal reasons last spring.  I played bass for a couple of tours and joined the band full time in June completing the new lineup.  Since then, we’ve been hard at it; trying to refine House of Fools and really focusing on how to move forward in this ever changing musical and pop-cultural environment.

Not only did House of Fools lose two members at around the same point in time, but also had a change in management and booking.  At the moment we are handling the booking of all of our shows and have started a working relationship
with our long time friend, Alex Burton and his new, super fly PR campaign GET FRESH USA.  We have been writing and recording like mad men (I swear I think Josh could write a song a day if he needed to) and we have over 50 demos up our sleeves that we cannot wait for you all to hear.  Its very possible that we may even tease you with a clip or two here on this very blog!

So in summation, we really just want you all to know that we haven’t fallen off the map.  We are playing more and more shows every month and cannot wait to tour again.  We are adapting to the ever changing climate of the internet age and using all available social utilities (myspace, facebook, twitter, etc) to continue to spread the good word of House of Fools.  We still have plans to take over the world and we would love you all to help us do it!  So keep checking back often.  Tell everyone you know that House of Fools are still alive and while you are at it, point them in the direction of this blog…and our myspace…and our facebook…and twitter…

We love you all.

Jordan & House of Fools