As I mentioned over on Bad Altitude, I'm going on tour this January. I wasn't expecting to do this, but I'm fortunate enough that at the present time I don't have any responsibilities that can't be shirked for two weeks' time to go ride around in a van and sleep on people's floors.

I was in a band for a while called Subcity Six. We broke up, but back before that we shared a practice space with a group called teamAWESOME!. I went to see them a bunch of times and I always thought they were good. I don't think they had the same lineup any two times I went to one of their shows, but that was always part of their appeal. Their songs are simple, childlike even, but never childish, if you know what I mean. The band uses a lot of nonstandard instrumentation -- if you come out to one of the shows on this tour, you'll see us use harmonica, violin, and glockenspiel in addition to guitar, bass, and drums -- and they're also dedicated to making music that's earnestly positive instead of the naked self-pity that passes for mature emoting in most of today's young bands. That's the reason that when team captain Chuck called me at the last possible minute and asked me to help out on their tour, I said sure thing. That and the fact that the people in the band are really nice, and I thought spending a fortnight making music with them would be a really neat way to begin my 2007.

I know a lot of Toaster readers are west coast-based, so there's a good chance that teamAWESOME! might be coming through your city in a few weeks. We're really counting on getting good crowds so we can sell a few CDs and earn a few bucks for gas and food. If you think you might be interested, there are some songs at the band's MySpace page to which you can listen. Even if you live on the opposite coast or in another country, I encourage you to head over to YouTube to check out the teamAWESOME! video for "Robot," because it's a brilliant piece of filmmaking.

The tour dates for the "Whale of a Good Time" Tour are as follows:

January 1st: Laramie, Wyoming- The Manor
January 2nd: Salt Lake City, Utah- Monk's House of Jazz
January 3rd: Boise, Idaho- Neurolux
January 4th: Spokane, Washington- Mootsy's
January 5th: Seattle, Washington- The Wild Rose
January 6th: Seattle, Washington- The Wizard House
January 7th: Portland, Oregon- The Mississippi Pizza Pub
January 8th: San Francisco, CA- Blondie's Bar and No Grill
January 10th: Santa Barbara, CA- Biko Co-op
January 11th: Los Angeles, CA- The Mint
January 12th: San Diego, CA- Ché Cafe
January 18th: Boulder, CO- Trilogy

So, come out and see us, if you can. Say hello to yours truly. You can't miss me. I'll be the tall, skinny one wearing some kind of sports jersey and mostly faking it on the electric bass. If you really want to help an impoverished band out, you could find some place in Northern California for us to play on the 9th, but that might just be too much for which to ask.