Hey everybody!!!  This is a little late in coming because I have been very, very busy searching high and low for the perfect van - thanks to all of you!!!! 

First off, thank you so much to all of you who have helped us reach our goal on Kickstarter.  It has been an absolutely amazing experience and we couldn't possibly be happier.  We could not have done this without your help, and we're so glad to move on to the next stage and give out our rewards before hitting the road.  To that end I'll be emailing all of you directly in the next couple days to give links for the records, get your addresses and hear what kind of songs some of you want covered. 

As for an actual van update, I've was quite busy on craigslist trying to find the right van last week.  I've wound up speaking to a lot of very odd and very strange people the past couple weeks - the assortment of people selling vans is a little creepy I must admit, but as of this past weekend I had it down to two options. 

The first was a van being sold by a band that had just broken up.  It was a little expensive, but it was coming from a good home, and the band that was using it had been touring around all over the East Coast so I knew it was in good shape.  That being said, I wasn't sure we wanted a broken up band's van - I'm a little superstitious... 

The second option was a van being sold by a man from Lehigh Valley, PA (land of the Amish for those of you not that familiar with the great state of Pennsylvania).  I called the number for the ad and spoke to a very nice gentleman who described what he used the van for as 'haulin' Amish'.  I, being of a fairly inquisitive mind, asked for some elaboration, only to find out that when distances are too far for an Amish man, a horse and a buggy to travel, the Amish can avail themselves of a motorized vehicle, and if there's enough Amish people on the move they rent a 'man with a van'.  Well, this particular man decided he wanted out of the 'haulin' Amish' business, and the only way he could keep himself from being dragged right back into that sordid profession was to sell, sell, sell.  So I went out to the country this past weekend and Paradise, PA was my first stop.  And my last.  It was love at first sight.

So now we are ready to hit the road.  Bowling Green Ohio, Chicago and Jacksonville IL, St. Louis MO, and Austin TX, prepare yourselves.  As for the rest of you, thank you again, feast your eyes on this beauty of a 2002 Dodge Ram 3500, look for our rewards email and please come see us at a show!!!

XOXOXOXOXO,

JFO

Hey everybody!!!

Thank you so much to everyone who has donated so far - we're almost halfway there!   This has really been such an amazing experience so far - it feels truly incredible and humbling to have your support for this project.  The tour dates are finally falling into place this week, and the Obligations and I are getting so excited to take this show on the road.  We can hardly wait!  

We're working on the tour posters to send out to our backers this week, and I thought it might also be fun to post a song that will make up part of the acoustic EP we are working on for this project.  The song is called 'Crooked Fingers' and was recorded and mixed by the Obligations' own Marty Fowler. 

I wrote this song a few years back on a trip to London. I was sitting in my hotel room because I couldn't actually afford to leave the room at the time, but more importantly, because I had this melody stuck in my head that had to escape.  I then aimlessly walked around London singing it over and over again, thinking that I'd make the band play it and we'd turn it into a space-jam with ridiculous feedback solos at the end.  Luckily, that didn't happen.  It did however turn into a nice acoustic version, and we now play a version at shows these days with Scott Campbell on glockenspiel.

Enjoy!

-Josh

Thanks to all of you guys for getting behind this project!  The band and I are all getting pretty excited to get out next month across the country.  It looks like we'll be playing Buffalo, Bowling Green OH, Chicago, Nashville, Kansas City and quite a few dates in Austin.  In the meantime, I've been searching all over the tri-state area for the perfect van - not too big, not too small, racing stripes, working engine, etc., and I've got a few finalists in mind.  I'll post some pics up here soon! 

We're also going to be throwing a little Kickstarter/Birthday party show (I'm turning 21 again!) this month on the 11th at Trash Bar in Brooklyn, and we do hope you can make it!  Please let me know if any of you backers out there will be in the neighborhood and you'll be promptly put on the guest list and bought a drink!  

Again, thanks to everyone for helping make this year of touring happen and I'll be back soon with another update!