Though this stellar example of a YouTube video wasn’t filmed in Synthesis’ hometown of Chico, it might as well have been. Only difference is, out here we call them Jager Blasters, but everything else is basically spot on.

In the first chapter of Daniel Taylor Guide to Style we figured out how to match. In chapter 2, we figure out how to buy:

1. Check out spots like Hypebeast and sneaker forums to find out what all the cool kids don’t like.

2. Go to a store to search for said items, sticking solely to the clearance and sale racks.

3. Purchase.

4. ???

5. Profit

Thanks to the homies at Trucker for the Nike 6.0 Tetris Rogans. While the haters sit in their rooms debating the difference between Dunks and Terminators I’ll be on the street wrecking P.

One of my shitty bands got the chance to share the stage yesterday with a couple slightly less shitty bands, the surprisingly badass Phantom Planet and a band I’d never really heard of called Takota. I don’t think anyone else had really heard of them either, but I get the feeling that’s about to change: they’re second disc, Just Before Morning is set to come out on Island Records later this year and if it’s anything like their live set, its gonna be filled with epic vocal hooks ( ala Dredg ) set atop guitar-driven midtempo pop rock, with a little synth grandeur added in for good measure. Someone told me they sounded like the Scorpions gone modern emo, which might sound like a dig, but if you know shit about epic ’80s ballads you know the Scorpions are on point. Anyways, since they’re on some major label bullshit they only have brief clips of some songs on their Myspace but you can get a pretty good gauge of what the band is all about regardless. If you’re on the east coast you can also check them out on tour with Third Eye Blind next month. Oh and if yourre wondering who the sore thumb dude is in the above picture (for those too obtuse for old adages, sore thumb as in sticking out) he’s not just some random old dude who slapped on an H&M sweater to try to look more croosh, he’s Justin, one of the old drummers from Reel Big Fish. That’s cred.

I have a penpal. The good ol’ fashioned kind. We don’t even TYPE our letters, we write them. By hand. He writes me wonderful things about atheism and pagans and life in a Texas prison. Yup, he’s in tha slamma. He’s a cool dude, tho. Here’s the latest from him… it’s a lovely letter and I encourage you to read it…

Though this post is semi-masturbatory in nature, I still can’t help but be stoked that the best radio station not on Satellite, NPR, picked local yokels Surrogate’s song “15″ as their Song of the Day. Check it out on the NPR web site, like it, then go to Amazon and buy the damn CD so that I can spend my summer vacation rocking Saddam Hussein’s ass back to Russia like I did last year.

Photo by Harland Spinks

Better known as Matt, but there’s too many Matt’s here so we just call him Fletch.

Fletch likes to party and recently just got back from Rosarito for Spring Break where he drank the mysterious rattlesnake tequila:

Says he…

“it’s a diffrent kind of drunk, like you’ve been poisiond, and then you realize you have. my shot had a scale in it. It tasted like old meat”

What’d you do after?

“ran around like we were on fire, tried to talk to some girls, but I think they were 12. So we went to a taco stand and drank a 5 dollar beer”

Aside from partying in Rosarito, Fletch also likes to host spoon parties, dress in suits that are too snug, and make random songs about ham (?).

I think it’s safe to say we found someone crazy enough to rock the groundhog suit for next year’s groundhog day crawl. It’s going to be tough to top me, though…