Greetings to all of our closest friends, family, roadies and groupies (specifically the girl in Iowa City!),
We hope the holidays find you and your family in great health! Can you believe another year has come and gone?? How the time seems to fly! It has been ages since we last spoke, so we know how anxious you must be to hear about our year! Rest assured, it has been a banner year for the boys of noise! The wonderful opportunities we have been blessed with are truly humbling, and we have no doubt that our year was filled with many more riches than yours!
Happy Holidays from Mr. Budget, Alex and Austin (from left to right)
Once again our tour schedule was a bit limited due to Oliver’s probationary restrictions, but we were able to make the best of it. When life hands you lemons!
In March we made our annual journey down to Texas for the South By Southwest Music festival. Over three days we played 5 shows — 2 of which were absolutely amazing, 2 we don’t remember, and 1 that Austin refers to as “The worst show we have ever played. Ever.” Needless to say, the crowd was not clamoring for a copy of our record after that show!
Alex struggling through the really bad show.
As you probably guessed, we met up with some of our celebrity friends while in Texas. Alex hosted an impromptu jam session with Billy Zane and Ernie Hudson, and Austin spent most of his time chatting with that bloated white guy with the dreadlocks from that band from the 90s. You know, what’s his name? The guy who dated Courtney Cox. Yeah, you know who we’re talking about.
Can you find Austin in this photo?
In May the band performed at a Battle of the Bands hosted by the excellent people at Tribeca Flashpoint Academy. We really worked hard to make it a special event! We lost!
Amidst a record-breaking heat wave, The Noise FM toured the Midwest throughout July with our friends in The Photo Atlas. Contrary to what you may have heard, Oliver suffered only a minor heat-stroke, and the doctors say the carbon monoxide poisoning from sleeping in the back of the van only made his condition worse! But don’t worry — we have since replaced the batteries in both of the van’s carbon detectors!
Photo Atlas & Noise FM
That’s right, we have still been driving that ol’ clunker of a van around! She looks and sounds like she’s been to hell and back (we did play in Muncie, Indiana!), but she’s a trooper. Nothing can stop her, not even the large deer Austin plowed through on our way to Minneapolis! The road looked like a slaughter house, but the van just kept on humming!
Prior to the van explosion.
During a tour in July we blew out two tires and ruptured the fuel tank. As gas pooled up on the shoulder of Highway 70, Oliver exited the van with a lit cigarette in hand. You would have loved the fireworks display! Mom endearingly refers to the van as a “deathtrap” which we’ve adopted as its official name. We recently redecorated Deathtrap’s exterior by shearing off the door handle upside a telephone pole! Good luck trying to get out of this van in an emergency!
The new and improved door handle on Deathtrap
The band received all sorts of positive press coverage this year including stellar reviews of the “Enclave” EP. Bradley Hartsell of In Your Speakers wrote “There’s a lack of substance to [The Noise FM] that has to be their biggest drawback… Though the band has achieved success, it’s kind of hard to see why.” Bradley sure is a straight-shooter!
Not to be outdone, David C. Eldredge of Illionis Entertainer wondered what would happen “If only these six originals were a bit more interesting, and a tad less repetitive…” Come on, David! Let’s see you try to write six songs! All in all, people have really enjoyed our music since moving up to the big city!
Austin has stayed busy this year with all of his usual hobbies! And after being let go from his part-time job at Gap, he’s had more time than ever to concentrate on his readings. He’s been tearing through graphic novels, and though there are a lot of pictures in them, we’re glad to see he’s reading novels and not just comic books anymore! Austin also learned how to transfer phone calls as a receptionist at his new job. And just the other day he came up with a name for a band he would like to start someday: Skull Skin. It’s been a productive year for Austin!
Alex had a 7-day free trial membership to a gym. He really loved the facilities but ultimately decided against joining. It would have been a big commitment, and he didn’t like the idea of making monthly payments without knowing for certain that he would get his money’s worth. It’s something to think about in the future though!
Oliver celebrated another birthday this year! And he has almost earned tenure with his job at Jimmy John’s!
Mr. Budget has really taken to his new life in Chicago, and his Twitter (@MrBudgetIsACat) has been blowing up in popularity! He really is just the sweetest cat ever. If only he didn’t throw up so often on Alex’s bed. He’s also put on quite a bit of weight. He doesn’t get outside as much these days what with being in a city and all. Still, Mr. Budget has been an absolute blessing to this family!
Mr. Budget is doing great!
We don’t need to tell you again how wonderful a year it has been for The Noise FM! But we will! There is no way things could have possibly gone any better for the band or in our personal lives! We would love to hear back from you! If you insist on sending a gift, we absolutely adore cash, turtles and Kohl’s gift cards.
Happy holidays!
-The Noise FM
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