 "Photo: COURTESY PHOTO")
Punk-rock drummer Dylan Pickleshoe has three necessities when it comes to traveling thousands of miles on his band tours.
“Socks, coffee thermos and (Russian philosopher Friedrich) Nietzche,” Pickleshoe said. “A lot of Nietzche.”
Pickleshoe’s five-member punk rock band, Crackbox, is one of many unsigned bands who have packed up and left home for cross country tours with only a few possessions like a spare change of clothes and some resilience.
The band has no label to answer to, a Myspace.com account to promote their music and their tours to expose their music to anyone who will listen.
Between sets outside the Vermillion Washington Street Arts Center show Sunday night, Pickleshoe, a New Orleans native, stood inhaling drag after drag of his cigarette while shivering in his cropped leather jacket and patiently waiting for his bandmates, who were arriving an hour late to the venue.
For Pickleshoe, the motivation to sit in Crackbox’s white Chevy van, “Vanna White,” all day lies within his love for the performance that takes place at night.
“Being in the van all day makes it hard and sometimes doing a show every night makes it harder,” Pickleshoe said. “But I don’t know what else to do with my life. This is my life.”
Letters to Friends, another unsigned band which includes Vermillion resident Eryn Zerr and her band members will take off for a cross country tour in January. Zerr said Letters to Friends isn’t too concerned with making money or gaining mass exposure, and would just like to play their music for friends.
“We play music to make people feel good,” Zerr said. “We’re not looking to get money out of this, but we want to get our message out there. If you want a lot of people to listen to your music, you better have something to say.”
Senior Scott Erickson, another member of Letters to Friends, said he writes music the way another person may write in their diary. Creating music in a group environment is even better than doing it solo, Erickson said.
“The collaboration is fun,” he said. “I love seeing the beautiful things we can do together versus the things we can do by ourselves. Our message in general would be to find happiness in your own way outside of that paradigm that seems to be instilled in us.”
Erickson said he is excited about leaving for the band’s tour. Though the schedule and destinations are still undetermined, they plan on playing in cities where their friends live.
Erickson said along with being accessible through the Internet, the most important thing for unsigned bands is having a network of friends across the country.
“Between all of us, we know so many people across the country who are going to help us do this tour,” Erickson said. “If they don’t know how to book shows, they’ll know someone who books shows. It’s all about connections.”
Robert Daniels, a member of a Seattle-based punk band called Snuggle, said he has been a part of a label before and prefers being unsigned versus having to answer to a label.
Snuggle, who is touring with Crackbox, puts out its own records and books their own tours and shows, Daniels said.
“We don’t need a label,” Daniels said. “We have enough friends who are excited for the music we play. That is promotion.”
Pickleshoe said after travelling over 14,000 miles on their last tour from their hometown of New Orleans, playing in New York, Seattle and many venues in between, he had a job to come back to at a New Orleans coffee shop.
But with the current tour’s schedule undetermined, Pickleshoe said he got intoxicated before noon and proceeded to break all the dishes at the establishment before quitting and leaving town the next day for Chattanooga, Tenn.
“We all get fed up with our lives and our routines once in a while, and so we break out of it,” Pickleshoe said. “Quitting that job is the best part of this tour. I love that memory.”
Pickleshoe said within the past week the band has played shows in Chattanoga, St. Louis, Chicago, Madison, Wisc. and Minneapolis before coming to Vermillion. Crackbox and Snuggle are off to Denver and next plan on finishing the tour in Seattle again.
“It’s like a party every single night,” Pickleshoe said. “It gets old and it gets tiring, but I love meeting new bands, new people and performing.”
Erickson said he is excited to see new places and see how different audiences react to their music. Most importantly, he is looking forward to
strengthening his relationship with his band mates and
sharing the memories of performing, Erickson said.
“One of the best moments in performing is when you’re sailing through a song and everyone’s feeling it and you look at one of your band members and smile,” Erickson said. “You share that moment with them where you know you have created something great.”
Reach reporter Ngoc Thach at Ngoc.Thach@usd.edu.
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