Spring 2003
 
Wednesday, June 11th
we're in london today. had a great start to our european trip with a bunch of really good television, radio and press interviews in madrid and paris the past few days. we're still adjusting to the time change and trying to catch up on our sleep, but things are going very well ("calling all angels" is the #1 most requested song at spain's biggest radio station this week!). there was a major strike going on in paris yesterday with people rioting and blocking the streets. we barely made it to our train to london in time, but we did and all is good. we're looking forward to this week as we'll be playing the first three full-length shows of the tour in london on friday night, manchester on saturday night and amsterdam on monday night. we'll also get to see our friends michelle branch and the lovely miss bonnie raitt when we tape a performance on "top of the pops" tomorrow afternoon.

so, when we arrived at our hotel in london we heard the good news that our album did very well in the U.S. this week and will debut on the billboard charts at #6! very excited about that. thanks to everybody who went out and bought a copy this week. we'd really like to be #5 next week, so if you could tell all of your friends to pick up a copy this week that would be great. while we were checking into the hotel here in london we ran into the guy/kid who plays "Malcolm in the Middle" down in the lobby. we were like, "Malcolm! how's it going dude? we love your tv show!" and he was like, "thanks. i'm doing really good, but Malcolm is not my real name. it's just a character i play on television. hey, aren't you guys Train?" and we were like, "yeah. our new album, "My Private Nation" just entered the billboard charts at #6 and we're going to celebrate. wanna come?" and he was like, "i'm not old ! enough to drink yet, but thanks anyway. i LOVE you guys! Train is my favorite band in the whole world and your new CD is the best ever!" and we were like, "cool dude. thanks. we'll see you later, Malcolm". he seemed like a very nice guy/kid. you know last week when we were in new york we ran into the guy who played in that movie "La Bamba" in the hotel bar and we were like, "hey La Bamba! what are you doing here?!" and he was like, "La Bamba is a movie i made a long time ago. my real name is Lou Diamond something or other." and we were like, "cool. we thought you died in a tragic plane crash with Buddy Holly! this is incredible! hey, have you heard our new CD yet?" and he was like, "no." so we split. he wasn't very nice. it's pretty cool doing what we do and getting to meet famous people and all. pat said he'd most like to meet Ace Ventura someday. scott would love to meet ! Tommy Boy. charlie would like to meet Braveheart and jimmy would like to meet Daphne from Scooby-Doo. we'd be like, "hey Mr. Ventura, Tommy Boy, Braveheart and Daphne from Scooby-Doo! our new album, "My Private Nation" just entered the billboard charts at #6...wanna party?!" that'd be cool.

later,
pat, jimmy, scott and charlie

Friday, June 6th
well....we just wrapped up our week long promotional visit to new york with a taped performance of the CBS Morning Show, which will air on the 18th. there were quite a few people who turned out to watch the taping. we performed "calling all angels", "drops of jupiter", "meet virginia" and "when i look to the sky". it was a beautiful day in new york city. earlier this morning we performed live on the Today Show in front of a very large, enthusiastic crowd. we played "calling all angels", "drops of jupiter" and "all american girl" on that one. tonight we'll be on Late Night with David Letterman, which we taped yesterday evening. Tom Arnold was the guest host and actually did a very good job. he's a funny guy. what else...we did an acoustic concert for America Online, which will be available in a week or so when you log onto AOL. we also did a taped acoustic performance for the satellite radio network that wi! ll be airing soon. we performed on the Carson Daly Show on monday night. that one will air on the 13th. we played "calling all angels" and "ramble on" for that. oh, and we performed at tower records on 4th and broadway on tuesday to celebrate the release of our new record. it was supposed to be an outdoor live performance, but it was pouring rain, so we invited as many people as could fit into the store, asked them to sit on the floor, be very quiet and we played an acoustic set with no mics or amps. it was actually a lot of fun and something different. that's about it for our week aside from every other free moment being filled with phone interviews and other press. we head to the airport in an hour to fly to madrid where we'll begin two weeks of european promotion. hmmm...eight hours on a plane? sounds like naptime.

charlie, scott, jimmy, little buddy (one of our guitar techs) and shawn peterson (director of the "calling all angels" video) were invited to see Radiohead perform an exclusive small theater show in new york last night after we finished taping the letterman show. the Strokes were hangin' out in our VIP area as were many other celebs and industry types. it was a great show. pat stayed home to rest his voice.

anyway...opening week for our new album. we've been absolutely swamped with letters and emails from people saying really nice things about it. except that one letter we received from a very disappointed gal who was very upset that we switched from our traditional lower case logo on the cover to upper case. i guess you can't please everybody. she loved the music inside, though. just not the lower case thingy.

WITH THAT SAID, WE'RE OFF TO EUROPE. HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYBODY. WE'LL DROP YOU A LINE SOMETIME NEXT WEEK.

PAT, JIMMY, SCOTT AND CHARLIE

Monday, June 2nd
we're in new york city for the release of our record tomorrow. we finished our radio promo tour on friday. it was a very hectic schedule (up to three cities a day), but it went very well. the radio stations seem as excited about this new record as we are. we would like to apologize to the fans in baltimore who showed up at the live remote radio broadcast. we had to run out the door right after we got off the air without signing anything or saying hello. we were running very late and had a flight to catch. we'll make it up to you the next time.

anyway, today we'll be taping the carson daly show, which will air on june 13th. tomorrow, of course, is the release of our third CD, "My Private Nation". to celebrate the release we'll be performing live outside tower records in new york at 6PM and meeting fans afterwords. we'd like to apologize to the citizens of new york city for blocking off 4th and broadway during rush hour traffic. we'll try to make that up to you as well. friday you can catch us on the streets of new york once again (or on the tele) as we'll be on the today show in the morning and late night with david letterman that night. then we're off to madrid to begin two weeks of promo events in europe. we'll return to the states on june 23rd for the tonight show with jay leno and then we'll begin our tour in san francisco on the 26th!

just wanted to touch base with everyone and remind you all that our new record, which we're very excited about, hits the stores tomorrow. we can't wait for you to hear it and we're very much looking forward to touring and seeing you all this summer.

happy june,
pat, jimmy, scott and charlie