We’ve been home for almost a week, plugged back into our recharging pods, and are refresehed and awaiting our next Coulton deployment (which will be in Boston on Nov. 21). But we have a good bit of website-catching-up to do, not the least of which is to thank our audiences in Nottingham and Birmingham, both of whom were fun and excellent—you can read Jonathan’s summaries here and here, respectively—and we cannot emphasize enough how much we enjoyed our visit to our former tea-taxing brethren in the UK.
We learned a great many things in the Motherland. Among our discoveries:
Saying "cheers" works as an all-purpose greeting, toast, and apology
Even the lowliest banger (sausage) is terrific; bacon is not bacon
It seems that nobody is actually "from" Birmingham; it is, in that respect, much like Pontiac, MI
Now then, on to other business…in no particular order:
Super Dave, online guitar lesson giver extraordinaire, has done a lesson for another one of our songs—this time, it’s "Opening Band". With special, you-could-never-guess-who guests!
And the final note in the "Flattering Derivative Works" Department, fan Ryan has transcribed our song "Live" for piano. If you’d like to download it and become the next Paul and Storm tribute band, you can get the file here.
FINALLY…don’t foget to request us on Eventful (see the widget on the right) to help hasten our return!
In this episode: debriefing from our grand trip to England; Storm sees London, France and underpants; the portability of pop culture references; the joy of pubs and starchy foods; Paul freely fesses up to his poseur-hood; the unadulterated joy of Jaffa Cakes; and the announcement of our new upcoming project, “The 25 Days of Newman”.
Audience participation alert! Please post a comment suggesting possible movies to be included in our December project, “The 25 Days of Newman”.
It would be difficult to describe in words how awesome last night’s show at Shepherds Bush Empire was (or how difficult it was transporting all of our baggage and merchandise through the London Tube) So we will merely list a string of random consonants:
DGSTRWMKJDFNWQQQQQQQJWFNJKSHSGDKSDLJF!!!
We think that says it all, don’t you?
In all seriousness, the show last night was tremendous–this takes nothing away from the Manchester show the previous evening, which was its own special brand of crazy/awesome–but Shepherds Bush Empire is an outstanding music venue: great acoustics, great staff, and what can be called the most delightfully sarcastic light show we’ve ever been a part of. (And trust us, it is indeed possible to light a show sarcastically) The punters in the hall were rowdy in just the right way; and they bought a metric crapload of merchandise.
Also, we learned that the going rate for Paul to bust out his best "Liza Minnelli in Cabaret" impression is £20. (We’re sure YouTube evidence will be forthcoming soon enough) Storm, unfortunately, did not get the chance to go the full monty, but says £2000 ought to do it. (Take note, anyone coming to our remaining two UK shows, though in truth we don’t recommend it)
Additional food tally: curry, Bishop’s Finger and Old Speckled Hen Fine Strong Ale, macaron (French pastry), more English breakfast (this time with baked beans; still no black pudding 🙁
GameCity in Nottingham tonight, then Birmingham tomorrow, then we go the hell home. Cheers!
A simply smashing first leg of the UK Tour with Coulton last night in Manchester. Staff was friendly; crowd was excitable and ready to have a great time; our myriad pop culture references seemed for the most part to translate properly; and Paul began his UK whoring in earnest, rocking his new Man U jersey during Jonathan’s set.
Of special note: author/raconteur/famous person/friend of the band Neil Gaiman, by sheer coincidence, was giving a reading last night approximately 400 yards down the road. Never ones to turn down a gift from the gods of chance, we implemented a literary/music exchange program: Neil kindly asked the three of us to perform a couple songs at the beginning of his reading; and then he showed up during Jonathan’s encore and brought the house down with a thoroughly spooky recitation of the second verse of "Creepy Doll". (We’re sure footage of it will show up on the YouTubes soon enough, for those who are interested)
Food tally: bangers and mash, fish and chips with mushy peas, various meat pies and cask conditioned ales, full cooked breakfast (on-train), spotted dick. Tonight we’re back in London (Indian cuisine), and then off to Nottingham. Wheeeeeee!
In this episode: Storm takes the tiller; Albert Einstein with a flamethrower is everyone’s favorite; we discuss sitcom remakes; Alabaman vs. Dickensian Fonzie; livery stables; Twiki replaces Jack Klugman; a coked-up Robin Williams; the effect of Pam Dawber and Erin Grey on the pre-adolescent libido; and it all comes back to the smithee.
Audience participation alert! Please post a comment suggesting good or bad potential sitcom remakes, and/or a sitcom character transplant.
In this episode: Beets worthy of tears; the undisputed fact that Storm can totally kick Paul’s ass; elementary school dust-ups; and various battles royale, incorporating the Tasmanian Devil, Wolverine, Gilligan, the Dude, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and flying monkeys (among others). Plus, this time around, technology fails Paul.
Audience participation alert! Please take part in the “battle” polls after the break; or suggest other possibilities in the comments.
Featured post-show song: “Battle Without Honor or Humanity” – Tomoyasu Hotei
And now—FOR A LIMITED TIME—you can get all four of these holiday favorites for the low, low price of $2. You heard right: that’s 4 songs for 2 bucks! BUT WAIT—that’s not all! Oh, hold on…yes it is. But that’s still one heckuva bargain. Click here to purchase Paul and Storm’s Halloween Super-Fun-Pack.
And finally, nothing says "I think you’re swell" in a more grisly way than the gift of a monster from our good friend Len’s Monster By Mail (that’s his artwork you’re gandering at.)
The thirteenth episode of our podcast, 
