Been home from tour for nearly a week and I’m still glowing. When Andrew dropped Rob and I off at the Atlanta airport we agreed it was among the most fun tours yet. This seems to have become the norm for us of late — that is to say we’re hyper-aware of the army of friends and fellow music-lovers who make this possible. We have much to be grateful for and little to justify our periodic bouts of bitterness, usually sustained while we’re evaluating our whole lives sitting in a janitor closet waiting to go on (credit: How to Tour in a Band or Whatever).

Thanks especially to Circle Takes the Square for a couple of weeks of good times and late nights.

From September 2011, Issue 152:

US East Coast/SE dates coming up soon. Any questions or ideas to fill days off please email contact@cityofships.com. Hope to see y’all while we’re out.

Tue/18 Oct – Charlotte NC — Lunchbox Records w/ One Another, Calormen

Wed/19 Oct – Blacksburg VA — 130 Jackson w/ Equestrians

Thurs/20 Oct – Doylestown PA — Siren Records w/ Restorations

Fri/21 Oct – Boston MA — PT109 w/ Now Denial

Sat/22 Oct – Brooklyn NY — Union Pool w/ Dysrythmia, East of the Wall, Meek is Murder
1000Knives CMJ Showcase

Sun/23 Oct – Baltimore MD — Ottobar w/ Circle Takes the Square, PALA
**1pm matinee show

Mon/24 Oct – Charlottesville VA — Balkan Bistro

Tue/25 Oct – Richmond VA — Strange Matter w/ Weak Teeth

Wed/26 Oct – Greensboro NC — Glenwood Coffee and Books w/ Circle Takes the Square, Pygmy Lush

Thurs/27 Oct – Savannah GA — venue tba w/ Circle Takes the Square

Fri/28 Oct – Gainesville FL — The Atlantic
The Fest 10 / Ships at 1am

Sat/29 Oct – St Petersburg FL — Fubar w/ Circle Takes the Square, Capsule

Mon/31 Oct – Pembroke Pines FL — Talent Farm w/ Circle Takes the Square, Touche Amore, Pianos Become the Teeth, Capsule

Tue/01 Nov – Orlando FL — The Haven w/ Circle Takes the Square, Touche Amore, Pianos Become the Teeth, Capsule

Wed/02 Nov – Birmingham AL — Spring St. Firehouse w/ Circle Takes the Square, Touche Amore, Pianos Become the Teeth

Fri/04 Nov – New Orleans LA — Hey Cafe

Sun/06 Nov – Hattiesburg MS — The Tavern w/ Circle Takes the Square

Mon/07 Nov – Atlanta GA — Drunken Unicorn w/ Circle Takes the Square

Tue/08 Nov – Athens GA — Caledonia Lounge w/ Circle Takes the Square

A few shows:

Fri/Oct 28 – Gainesville, FL – The Fest w/250+ bands

Mon/Oct 31 – Pembroke Pines, FL – The Talent Farm w/ Touche Amore, Circle Takes the Square, Pianos Become the Teeth, Capsule

Tue/Nov 01 – Orlando, FL – The Haven w/ Touche Amore, Circle Takes the Square, Pianos Become the Teeth

Wed/Nov 02 – Birmingham, AL – The Firehouse w/ Touche Amore, Circle Takes the Square, Pianos Become the Teeth

Working on some more east coast dates but it’s too early to tell what is and what isn’t.

For sale in the merch store are a few left over tshirts from the European tour along with copies of both full-length CDs and the 7″ from last year. If you wanna check it out please follow the link below.

NEW MERCH

Also, the HUM tribute is out this week. Check out this link to pick up a CD copy or grab one from us at a show.

popuprecords.com

Hardly seems real, but we made it through the clusterfuck that is US “Homeland Security” in waves over the last few days. Once in Newark, US Airways informed Andrew that his name and connecting flight home were not in their system. It took four employees over 2 hours to figure out that the airline entered his middle name as his first when he booked the ticket. Later still they revealed that the flight he booked over four months ago had actually been canceled without notice. After telling him he was welcome stay overnight on the floor at Newark Liberty Airport, they offered to reroute him 150 miles from home via FOUR ADDITIONAL FLIGHTS. This after he spent eight hours on a plane from Brussels. The joys of international travel.

Aside from that little problem and a van breakdown in Italy, the tour was the best we’ve ever done by a long shot. I think I’ve said that about previous tours. I guess that’s a good sign. Most sincere thanks are due to Michele Vanni, Davy De Schrooder, Tim Gyselbrecht, and Ewa Wundersam for taking care of our broke, irritable asses for many more days than anyone should ever have to endure. And of course cheers to Rosetta for being top notch tour mates yet again.

Vinyl and CDs for the new record are definitely available now. We’ve seen entirely positive reviews all over the place (maybe I’ll post a few here later). But mostly people still want to compare us to bands we’ve never listened to. With this album more than ever I’m inspired to begin reviewing our reviews. Below is a hypothetical excerpt, directed at no one in particular:

You’re a bad writer, as evidenced by a verbose introduction you hoped would establish you in your readers’ minds as a true authority on rock music. Your breadth of musical knowledge is too narrow if you think we’re directly influenced by bands you deduced we’re friends with by lurking on the internet. Next time, spend the hour you “devoted” listening to our album updating your facebook profile.

We are playing The Fest in Gainesville for the 4th year in a row. Probably on Friday night. Maybe some shows around that, as well. Since our van’s fuel pump is on its way to a landfill somewhere in Texas we’ll have to keep you posted.

We played with Neurosis in Italy last month and some killer footage turned up:

Cheers then.

Looking forward to the last show of our European tour this weekend at Belgium’s Ieper Fest. We play Saturday at 5:15. We’ll have CD copies of Minor World at the merch table. Finally.

Ieper Fest

Check out the new album here:

http://music.aol.com/new-releases-full-cds#/15

Pretty much the most depressing write-up I could imagine for anything pertaining to our band (read: emo-rock?), but at least the record is streaming from the same site responsible for debuting new music from 311 and REO Speedwagon.

Vinyl available here: http://soundstudyrecordings.com/soundstudy/shop.html

CD available here: http://translationloss.com/store/

And if you don’t know where to buy digital music by now, good luck navigating the Internet.

Cheers from Paris. More news soon.

City of Ships – Minor World – 19 July 2011.

Europe,

We’re here.

Actually we’ve been in Belgium for the last week rehearsing and living on the good graces of our excellent friends in the band Maudlin. Thanks to Davy and Tim in particular for going way out for us to help us pull off the impossible. Dudes gave us their practice space, most of their beer supply, and have cooked outrageous meals for us nearly every night since we arrived. We’ve been in heaven.

Tour begins this week and we couldn’t be more excited. We’ve got a few more really exciting shows to announce in areas we haven’t yet covered for late July, but we wanna confirm all the details before we put it out there. In any case, if you’re along our path, we hope you’ll come out and say hi. Got a bunch of new songs to share, and some eye-catching new merch in tow as well. Copies of the new album should be around at some point, but no word on exactly when we can expect those yet.

Please write if you have any questions, ideas, or suggestions for spots we should visit along the way: contact@cityofships.com

Hope to see you on the road!

01.06 Le Havre FR – MacDaid’s w/ Khuda
02.06 Laval FR – Queen’s Bar w/ Khuda
03.06 Lille FR – Le Detour
04.06 Aarschot BE – JC De Klinker w/ Maudlin
05.06 Osnabrück DE – Bastard Club
07.06 Würzburg DE – Immerhin
08.06 Chemnitz DE – AJZ
09.06 Hamburg DE – Astra Stube
10.06 København DK – KB18
11.06 Berlin DE – Shokoladen
14.06 Dornbirn AT – Cafe Schlachthaus
15.06 Fara Vicentino IT – Tobacco Bar
16.06 Bologna IT – XM24
17.06 Firenze IT – CSA Next Emerson
18.06 Viareggio IT – CSA Sars
19.06 Innsbruck AT – PMK
20.06 Frankfurt DE – Elfer
21.06 Mannheim DE – JUZ *
22.06 Reutlingen DE – Kulturzentrum Franz K *
23.06 Ljubljana SI – Orto Bar *
24.06 München DE – Feierwerk Sunny Red *
25.06 Leipzig DE – Zoro *
26.06 Berlin DE – Cassiopeia *
27.06 Szczecin PL – Alter Ego *
28.06 Gdańsk PL – Mechanik *
29.06 Poznań PL – Pod Minoga *
30.06 Warszawa PL – Radio Luxembourg *
01.07 Zduńska Wola PL – Club Variete *
02.07 Lublin PL – Tektura *
03.07 Łódź PL – Farbiarnia *
04.07 Košice SK – Tabacka Kulturfabrik *
05.07 Bratislava SK – Obluda *
06.07 Zagreb HR – AKC Medika *
07.07 Budapest HU – Tundergyar *
08.07 Wien AT – Escape *
09.07 Bolzano IT – Rock Im Ring * w/ Caliban, Terror, etc.
10.07 Milano IT – SGA (Arese) *
11.07 Clermont-Ferrand FR – Raymond’s *
12.07 Toulouse FR – Saint Des Seins *
13.07 Nantes FR – Le Ferrailleur *
14.07 Knokke-Heist BE – Ravelingen * w/ Maudlin
15.07 Utrecht NL – Ekko *
16.07 Tilburg NL – 013 *
17.07 Aachen DE – AZ *
18.07 Paris FR – Le Klub *
19.07 Bordeaux FR – Heretic Club *
20.07 Torino IT – Spazio 211 * w/ Neurosis
22.07 Luzern CH – Sedel * w/ Planks
23.07 Colmar FR – Le Grillen *
24.07 Rokycany CZ – Fluff Fest * w/ Ceremony, Polar Bear Club, Lemuria, etc.
12.08 Ieper BE – Ieper Fest (day/time TBA) w/ Meshuggah, Decapitated, Dillinger Escape Plan, Cro-Mags, etc.
* = w/ Rosetta

The new record is in production now. As we mentioned a while back, Translation Loss will issue the CD and Sound Study Recordings will put out the vinyl. The official release date is July 19, but we hope to have copies on the road for the latter half of our European tour.

The album runs 41:30 over ten songs:

01 Clotilde
02 Subrosa
03 Low Countries
04 Tantric Engineer
05 Darkness at Noon
06 Easy Way / Hard Way
07 Celestial Navigation
08 Sweet Delirium
09 Chainman
10 Low Lives